SAP (sapped, sapping)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: sapped    , sapping   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sap mean? 

• SAP (noun)
  The noun SAP has 3 senses:

1. a watery solution of sugars, salts, and minerals that circulates through the vascular system of a plant

2. a person who lacks good judgment

3. a piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people

  Familiarity information: SAP used as a noun is uncommon.

• SAP (verb)
  The verb SAP has 2 senses:

1. deplete

2. excavate the earth beneath

  Familiarity information: SAP used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SAP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A watery solution of sugars, salts, and minerals that circulates through the vascular system of a plant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("sap" is a kind of...):

solution (a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances; frequently (but not necessarily) a liquid solution)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sap"):

manna (hardened sugary exudation of various trees)

Derivation:

sappy (abounding in sap)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who lacks good judgment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fool; muggins; sap; saphead; tomfool

Hypernyms ("sap" is a kind of...):

simple; simpleton (a person lacking intelligence or common sense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sap"):

ass (a pompous fool)

buffoon; clown (a rude or vulgar fool)

flibbertigibbet; foolish woman (a female fool)

fucker (a stupid despised man)

bozo; cuckoo; fathead; goof; goofball; goose; jackass; twat; zany (a man who is a stupid incompetent fool)

meshuggeneh; meshuggener ((Yiddish) a crazy fool)

morosoph (a learned fool)

putz ((Yiddish) a fool; an idiot)

wally (a silly and inept person; someone who is regarded as stupid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

blackjack; cosh; sap

Hypernyms ("sap" is a kind of...):

bludgeon (a club used as a weapon)

• SAP (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they sap    ... he / she / it saps   
Past simple: sapped   
Past participle: sapped   
-ing form: sapping   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deplete

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

exhaust; play out; run down; sap; tire

Context example:

We quickly played out our strength

Hypernyms (to "sap" is one way to...):

consume; deplete; eat; eat up; exhaust; run through; use up; wipe out (use up (resources or materials))

Verb group:

play out (become spent or exhausted)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

sapper (a military engineer who does sapping (digging trenches or undermining fortifications))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Excavate the earth beneath

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "sap" is one way to...):

cave; undermine (hollow out as if making a cave or opening)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

sapper (a military engineer who does sapping (digging trenches or undermining fortifications))

 Context examples 

Methinks, Alleyne, it is this learning which you have taught her that has taken all the life and sap from her.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And though they were making poor time, the heavy load they dragged sapped their strength severely.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The feel of spring was in the air, the feel of growing life under the snow, of sap ascending in the trees, of buds bursting the shackles of the frost.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

When once I had pressed the frail shoulder, something new—a fresh sap and sense—stole into my frame.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And she was so much the woman, clinging and appealing, sunshine and dew to my manhood, rooting it deeper and sending through it the sap of a new strength.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His age may not have been more than three or four and thirty, but his haggard expression and unhealthy hue told of a life which has sapped his strength and robbed him of his youth.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He extracted great happiness from squelching her, and she squelched easily these days, though it had been different in the first years of their married life, before the brood of children and his incessant nagging had sapped her energy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There too, remarked Alleyne, as they rode on again, that which seems to the eye to be dead is still full of the sap of life, even as the vines were.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The sap was rising in the pines.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsundered below; though community of vitality was destroyed—the sap could flow no more: their great boughs on each side were dead, and next winter's tempests would be sure to fell one or both to earth: as yet, however, they might be said to form one tree—a ruin, but an entire ruin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)