Word Confusion: Knap versus Nap

Plural for the noun: knaps
Gerund: knapping

Third person present verb: knaps
Past tense or past participle: knapped
Present participle: knapping

Plural for the noun: naps
Gerund: napping

Third person present verb: naps
Past tense or past participle: napped
Present participle: napping

[Chiefly dialectal] A small hill

Verb:
[Archaeology] To shape (a piece of stone, typically flint) by striking it so as to make stone tools or weapons ²

• [Archaic] To strike with a hard short sound
• Deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon
• Knock
• Rap with the knuckles

[Architecture] To shape a piece of stone, typically flint, by striking it so as to create a flat-faced stone for building walls

To bite sharply

• Snap

[Singular noun] The raised hairs, threads, or similar small projections on the surface of fabric or suede (used especially with reference to the direction in which they naturally lie) ²

Any downy coating, as on plants

[Australian; informal; dated] A bedroll used for sleeping on in the open

A card game resembling whist in which players declare the number of tricks they expect to take, up to five ³

• A bid of five tricks

A pick or recommendation as a good bet to win ⁴

Verb, intransitive:
Sleep lightly or briefly, especially during the day ¹

• Doze

To be off one’s guard

[British; informal; of a person, action, or event] Find someone off guard and unprepared to respond

[Of a horse] Refuse, especially habitually, to go on at the rider’s instruction ⁵

• Jib

Verb, transitive:
[Usually followed by away] To sleep or doze through a period of time, an activity, etc. ¹

To raise the nap of cloth, especially velvet, by brushing or similar treatment ²

[British] Name (a horse or greyhound) as a probable winner of a race ³

We gathered at the knap of the hill above the village green.

There are many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills round about it.

Verb:
The history of the knife is an intriguing one dating back to simple flint tools knapped by prehistoric man.

By around 5,000 BC a focus had developed at the confluence of the Nene and a small tributary, where people stopped to light fires, knap flint, and perform domestic tasks.

There is good flint for making tools; the abundant debris confirms that handaxes were regularly knapped there.

That was no knock. That was a knap at the door!

“The flints in flushwork areas are very carefully knapped (trimmed to shape by chipping) and selected for fit and consistency of colour” (Flushwork).

“I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped Ginger” (Shakespeare).

“I’m going to knap one when I get back” (Fenn).

“Hanúmán caught it as it flew, And knapped it on his knee in two” (Válmíki).

Carefully machine the seam, following the direction of the nap.

The nap of the swamp cottonwood lets their leaves be carried long distances on the wind.

You can choose amongst a cowboy bedroll, an Australian nap, or an arctic sleeping bag.

“Nap [a straightforward trick-taking game in which players receive five cards each] reached England in the 1880s” (Parlett).

“Wellington may only follow a bid of nap and blücher a bid of wellington” (Parlett).

He discovered that his nap of the day had sprinted home at 10–1 at Doncaster.

Verb, intransitive:
Shh, she’s napping.

The question caught him napping.

He caught the runner napping off second base and tagged him out.

She will be showing people how to deal with issues like jumping, biting, rearing, and napping by listening to their horse.

Vices, if they occur, like napping, can quickly be overcome, with no fear of getting the bit pulled through the mouth.

Verb, transitive:
I napped the afternoon away.

He naps away most of his classes.

Historically, napped fabric was created by combing loosely spun yarns with teasels.

“Common fabrics that are napped are wool and cotton flannel, flannel-back satin, polyester fleece, flannelette, and outing flannel” (Botkin).

“Sueded fabrics are also napped through a process that includes an additional step to shear the nap close to the surface of the fabric to produce a smooth, soft finish” (Botkin).

Harbinger is napped to win the Novices’ Hurdle.

1. Before 1000; Middle English from the Old English cnæpp or cnæp meaning top, summit; cognate with the Old Norse knappr meaning knob.
2. Late Middle English, in the sense to knock, rap is imitative; compare with the Dutch and the German knappen meaning crack, crackle.

1. Old English hnappian, probably of Germanic origin.
2. Late Middle English noppe, from the Middle Dutch, the Middle Low German noppe meaning nap, noppen meaning trim the nap from.
3. Early 19th century, as an abbreviation of napoleon, the original name of the card game.
4. 1895
5. 1950s, as a back-formation from nappy, an adjective first used to describe heady beer (late Middle English), later used in the sense intoxicated by drink (early 18th century), and since the 1920s used to describe a disobedient horse.