Ever need a fact or quotation on lapping? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this is the largest book ever created for this single word. It represents a compilation from a variety of sources with a linguistic emphasis on anything relating to the term “lapping,” including non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in many unexpected examples for lapping, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster’s Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org).

Use in Literature

Lapping

On one occasion Gypsy put in her head and lapped up six custard pies that had been placed by the casement to cool.–Thomas Bailey Aldrich in The Story of a Bad Boy.

It swayed gently like a vast mass of molten silver in the starshine, and lapped softly against the shore.–Joseph A. Altsheler in The Guns of Bull Run.

Well, everything is for the best, and if Sumter doesn't fall into our laps tonight she'll fall tomorrow, and if she doesn't fall tomorrow she'll fall the next day.–Joseph A. Altsheler in The Guns of Shiloh.

Quicker than I can write it lapped a corner over and rolled me in its folds like a chrysalis in a cocoon.–Edwin L. Arnold in Gulliver of Mars.

Too well I knew the meaning of the lapping, hissing, sucking noise that instantly smote our ears.–T.S. Arthur in Danger.

They fell into our laps.–T.S. Arthur in The Allen House.

We two were coming up together through the sweet land of poesy and dreams, where the senses believe what the heart hopes; our hands were full of green boughs, and our laps of cowslips and violets, white and purple.–T.S. Arthur in Friends and Neighbors.

One might sleep, for the lapping of the wind wears one to the point of exhaustion very soon, but there is dread, in open sand stretches sometimes justified, of being over blown by the drift.–Mary Austin in The Land of Little Rain.

You are lapped in them like uprooted grass; suspect them of a personal grudge.–Mary Austin in The Land of Little Rain.

He has already the laps of two civilians to sit on.–Mariano Azuela in The Underdogs [Mexican Revolt].

• Preface iv
• Use in Literature 1
• Lapping 1
• Lapping – "Blood" 8
• Lapping – "Heard" 9
• Lapping – "Left" 9
• Lapping – "Life" 10
• Lapping – "Little" 10
• Lapping – "Men" 11
• Lapping – "Night" 12
• Lapping – "River" 12
• Lapping – "Round" 13
• Lapping – "Sea" 13
• Lapping – "Silently" 14
• Lapping – "Sound" 15
• Lapping – "Waters" 15
• Lapping – "Waves" 19
• Nonfiction Usage 21
• Script Usage 21
• Journalism Usage 21
• Patent Usage 21
• Bibliographic Usage 30
• Encyclopedic Usage 35
• Lexicographic Usage 39
• Index 57