clap1
/klap
/- The crowd cheered, whistling and clapping their hands.
- The crowd, while clapping their hands, also tapped their foot to the music, as the models pranced around showing off the jewellery.
- The audience clapped loudly at the end of the lecture.
- Then strolled out of the airport with my cousin who was clapping me on my performance.
- Cars hooted approval, crowds cheered and clapped the heroes.
- His father Gordon, a former York City star, asked the congregation to stand for a minute to applaud and clap Thomas, and ‘say thank you for knowing him’.
- Anna clapped her hands together once.
- Andy joined in at the last minute and clapped her hands together once.
- Maybe you should clap your hands once and knock your heels together three times.
- Big sodden bales sat in the small high-hedged fresh-cut fields, a pigeon clapped in the alders and misty rain filled a steel grey sky.
- At the sound, the birds rise from their night places; they clap their wide, black wings and settle again.
Synonyms
- So very, very, quietly… Drew claps Emily on the shoulder.
- With a crooked smile, he claps Doug on the shoulder.
- Wyatt nodded sympathetically, clapping him on the shoulder.
- She was grabbed again from behind and this time a big, scaly, clawed hand was clapped over her mouth.
- Another hand was clapped over his mouth, muffling the sound.
- You clap your hand to your forehead and trot back upstairs to change into a pair of jeans.
Synonyms
- She smiled, giving both of them a friendly clap on the shoulder.
- With a clap on the shoulder for me and a kiss for Willow, he went to bed.
Synonyms
- A loud clap of thunder sounded and rain could be heard pelting against the roof.
- ‘At the front desk we heard the explosion starting like a clap of thunder and then it kept rolling,’ she said.
- Before the two could get on with their innocent, child-like play, however, a loud clap of thunder echoed throughout the skies, which had turned dark from a while ago.
Synonyms
Phrases
clap eyes on
clap hold of
clap someone in jail (or irons)
Phrasal verbs
clap something on
Origin
Old English clappan 'throb, beat', of imitative origin. sense 1 of the verb dates from late Middle English.
rap from Middle English:
The word rap, in the sense of a blow, is of Scandinavian origin and is probably like clap (Late Middle English) and flap (Middle English), meant to imitate the sound. Since the end of the 18th century rap has been associated with rebuke and punishment, as in the phrase a rap on the knuckles for a sharp criticism. In early 20th-century American English the word developed the further meanings of ‘a criminal charge’ and ‘a prison sentence’. If you were acquitted you were said to beat the rap. To take the rap was to be punished or blamed, especially for something where other people were wholly or partly responsible. Performers of rap music tend to have a dangerous, bad-boy image, but the root of the term is not the ‘criminal charge’ or ‘prison’ senses but the old northern English sense ‘conversation, chat’. This was carried over the Atlantic, and rap in the sense ‘a talk or discussion’ is now an American use. The first reference to rap music comes in 1979.
Rhymes
clap2
/klap/Origin
Late 16th century: from Old French clapoir 'venereal bubo'.