Adjacent Words

Sap definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SAP, n.
1. The juice of plants of any kind, which flows chiefly between the wood and the bark. From the sap of a species of maple, is made sugar of a good quality by evaporation.
2. The alburnum of a tree; the exterior part of the wood, next to the bark. [A sense in general use in New England.]
SAP, v.t.
1. To undermine; to subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine.
Their dwellings were sapp'd by floods.
2. To undermine; to subvert by removing the foundation of. Discontent saps the foundation of happiness. Intrigue and corruption sap the constitution of a free government.
SAP, v.i. To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining.
Both assaults are carried on by sapping.
SAP, n. In sieges, a trench for undermining; or an approach made to a fortified place by digging or under cover. The single sap has only a single parapet; the double has one on each side, and the flying is made with gabions, etc. In all saps, traverses are left to cover the men.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
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 [syn: fool, sap, saphead, muggins, tomfool]
3: a piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people [syn: blackjack, cosh, sap] v
1: deplete; "exhaust one's savings"; "We quickly played out our strength" [syn: run down, exhaust, play out, sap, tire]
2: excavate the earth beneath

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English sæp; akin to Old High German saf sap Date: before 12th century 1. a. the fluid part of a plant; specifically a watery solution that circulates through a plant's vascular system b. (1) a body fluid (as blood) essential to life, health, or vigor (2) bodily health and vigor 2. a foolish gullible person 3. [probably short for sapling] blackjack, bludgeon • sapless adjective • saplessness noun II. transitive verb (sapped; sapping) Date: 1725 1. to drain or deprive of sap 2. to knock out with a sap III. verb (sapped; sapping) Etymology: Middle French sapper, from Old Italian zappare, from zappa hoe Date: 1598 intransitive verb to proceed by digging a sap transitive verb 1. to subvert by digging or eroding the substratum or foundation ; undermine 2. a. to gradually diminish the supply or intensity of <sapped her strength> b. to weaken or exhaust the energy or vitality of <the illness sapped him of his stamina> 3. to operate against or pierce by a sap Synonyms: see weaken IV. noun Etymology: French sape, from saper Date: 1642 the extension of a trench to a point beneath an enemy's fortifications

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 the vital juice circulating in plants. 2 vigour; vitality. 3 = SAPWOOD. 4 US sl. a bludgeon (orig. one made from a sapling). --v.tr. (sapped, sapping) 1 drain or dry (wood) of sap. 2 exhaust the vigour of (my energy had been sapped by disappointment). 3 remove the sapwood from (a log). 4 US sl. hit with a sap. Phrases and idioms: sap-green n. 1 the pigment made from buckthorn berries. 2 the colour of this. --adj. of this colour. Derivatives: sapful adj. sapless adj. Etymology: OE sæp prob. f. Gmc 2. n. & v. --n. 1 a tunnel or trench to conceal assailants' approach to a fortified place; a covered siege-trench. 2 an insidious or slow undermining of a belief, resolution, etc. --v. (sapped, sapping) 1 intr. a dig a sap or saps. b approach by a sap. 2 tr. undermine; make insecure by removing the foundations. 3 tr. destroy insidiously. Etymology: ult. f. It. zappa spade, spadework, in part through F sappe saper, prob. of Arab. orig. 3. n. sl. a foolish person. Etymology: abbr. of sapskull f. SAP(1) = sapwood + SKULL

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sap Sap, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Sapping.] [F. saper (cf. Sp. zapar, It. zapare), fr. sape a sort of scythe, LL. sappa a sort of mattock.] 1. To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. --Dryden. 2. (Mil.) To pierce with saps. 3. To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken. Ring out the grief that saps the mind. --Tennyson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sap Sap, n. [AS. s[ae]p; akin to OHG. saf, G. saft, Icel. safi; of uncertain origin; possibly akin to L. sapere to taste, to be wise, sapa must or new wine boiled thick. Cf. Sapid, Sapient.] 1. The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition. Note: The ascending is the crude sap, the assimilation of which takes place in the leaves, when it becomes the elaborated sap suited to the growth of the plant. 2. The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree. 3. A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang] Sap ball (Bot.), any large fungus of the genus Polyporus. See Polyporus. Sap green, a dull light green pigment prepared from the juice of the ripe berries of the Rhamnus catharticus, or buckthorn. It is used especially by water-color artists. Sap rot, the dry rot. See under Dry. Sap sucker (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of small American woodpeckers of the genus Sphyrapicus, especially the yellow-bellied woodpecker (S. varius) of the Eastern United States. They are so named because they puncture the bark of trees and feed upon the sap. The name is loosely applied to other woodpeckers. Sap tube (Bot.), a vessel that conveys sap.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sap Sap, v. i. To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. --W. P. Craighill. Both assaults are carried on by sapping. --Tatler.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sap Sap, n. (Mil.) A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc. Sap fagot (Mil.), a fascine about three feet long, used in sapping, to close the crevices between the gabions before the parapet is made. Sap roller (Mil.), a large gabion, six or seven feet long, filled with fascines, which the sapper sometimes rolls along before him for protection from the fire of an enemy.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(saps, sapping, sapped) 1. If something saps your strength or confidence, it gradually weakens or destroys it. I was afraid the sickness had sapped my strength... VERB: V n 2. Sap is the watery liquid in plants and trees. The leaves, bark and sap are also common ingredients of local herbal remedies.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Juice (of a plant). II. v. a. Mine, undermine.

Moby Thesaurus

abate, abri, approach trench, asshole, attenuate, axiom, babe, beverage, blood, blunt, boob, booby, bore, bunker, burrow, center, chump, cinch, communication trench, core, countermine, coupure, cramp, credulous person, cripple, cull, damp, dampen, deaden, debilitate, delve, dematerialize, deplete, destroy, devitalize, dig, dig out, dike, ding-a-ling, dingbat, dingdong, disable, disembody, distillate, distillation, ditch, double sap, drain, dredge, drill, drink, drive, dugout, dull, dupe, easy mark, easy pickings, elixir, enervate, enfeeble, entrenchment, essence, essential, etherealize, eviscerate, excavate, exhaust, extenuate, fabric, fall guy, fire trench, fish, flower, fluid, fluid extract, fluid mechanics, flying sap, focus, fool, fortified tunnel, fosse, foxhole, fundamental, furrow, gallery, galoot, gist, gobe-mouches, goof, gouge, gouge out, gravamen, greener, greenhorn, greeny, groove, grub, gruel, gudgeon, gull, heart, honeycomb, hydraulics, hydrogeology, hypostasis, inner essence, innocent, jerk, jerk-off, juice, kernel, klutz, knock out, latex, lay low, leadpipe cinch, liquid, liquid extract, liquor, lower, mark, marrow, material, matter, meat, medium, milk, mine, mitigate, moat, monkey, mutt, nub, nucleus, nuts and bolts, overset, overthrow, overturn, parallel, patsy, pigeon, pith, plaything, postulate, principle, prize sap, pushover, quarry, quid, quiddity, quintessence, rarefy, rattle, reduce, ruin, sabotage, sap the foundations, saphead, sawney, schlemiel, scoop, scoop out, scrabble, scrape, scratch, semiliquid, shake, shake up, shovel, sink, sitting duck, slit trench, soften up, soul, spade, spirit, spiritualize, stooge, stuff, substance, subtilize, subvert, sucker, sum and substance, the nitty-gritty, throw down, throw over, toy, trench, trough, trusting soul, tunnel, unbrace, undermine, unman, unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, upend, upset, victim, water, weaken, whey, wreck