Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brief sleep, often during the day.
  • intransitive verb To sleep for a brief period, often during the day; doze.
  • intransitive verb To be unaware of imminent danger or trouble; be off guard.
  • noun A soft or fuzzy surface on fabric or leather.
  • transitive verb To form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather).
  • transitive verb To pour or put a sauce or gravy over (a cooked dish).
  • noun A card game that resembles whist.
  • noun The highest bid in this game, announcing the intention to win five tricks, the maximum number in a hand.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A short sleep.
  • To have a short sleep; be drowsy.
  • To detect in the very act: hence the phrase in the quotation.
  • To raise or put a nap on.
  • noun A beaker.
  • noun The woolly or villous substance on the surface of cloth, felt, or other fabric.
  • noun Some covering resembling the nap of cloth.
  • noun A felted cloth used in polishing glass, marble, etc.
  • noun plural The loops of the warp in uncut velvet, which, when cut, form tho pile.
  • noun Dress; form; presentation.
  • To strike.
  • To cheat.
  • noun A knob; a protuberance; the top of a hill.
  • To seize; grasp.
  • noun An abbreviated form of napoleon, 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To have a short sleep; to be drowsy; to doze.
  • intransitive verb To be in a careless, secure state; to be unprepared.
  • noun A short sleep; a doze; a siesta.
  • noun Woolly or villous surface of felt, cloth, plants, etc.; an external covering of down, of short fine hairs or fibers forming part of the substance of anything, and lying smoothly in one direction; the pile.
  • noun The loops which are cut to make the pile, in velvet.
  • transitive verb To raise, or put, a nap on.
  • noun Same as napoleon, 1, below.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A soft or fuzzy surface on fabric or leather.
  • verb to form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather)
  • noun A short period of sleep, especially one during the day
  • verb to have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day
  • verb to be off one's guard
  • verb cooking To cover (something) with a sauce (usually in passive)
  • noun UK A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips
  • noun uncountable, games A card game in which players take tricks; properly Napoleon
  • verb obsolete to grab; to nab

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
  • noun a card game similar to whist; usually played for stakes
  • verb take a siesta
  • noun a period of time spent sleeping
  • noun a soft or fuzzy surface texture
  • noun sleeping for a short period of time (usually not in bed)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from nappen, to doze, from Old English hnappian.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (perhaps influenced by obsolete French nape, tablecloth) of Middle English noppe, from Middle Dutch.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French napper, from nappe, cover; see nappe.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for napoleon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English nappe, from Middle Dutch

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian ("to doze, slumber, sleep"), from Proto-Germanic *hnappōnan (“to nap”). Cognate with Old High German hnaffezan, hnaffezzan (> Middle High German nafzen ("to slumber") > German dialectal napfezen, nafzen ("to nod, slumber, nap")).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French napper, from nappe ("nape").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

possibly Scandanavian, cognate with nab, see Swedish nappa ("pinch")

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Examples

Comments

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  • Contronymic in the sense: stand up (e.g., nap of a rug) vs. lay down.

    January 27, 2007

  • Pan in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • My mother buried three husbands - and two of them were only napping.

    Rita Rudner

    March 15, 2008