Definitions

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

  • verb archaic Third-person singular simple present of to ape.
  • noun A halfpennyworth.
  • noun Northern England, informal An affectionate term for a silly or foolish person.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From ape.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abbreviation of ha’p’orth, itself an abbreviation of halfpennyworth.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word apeth.

Examples

  • Under the word apeth is compre - hended every qualification that is good and manly, and liberal: Under KAKOTHS, the contrary:

    Letters Concerning Education: Addressed to a Gentleman Entering at the ... 1785

  • Yanuck, a daft apeth for the most part, had one of the finest collections of custom-built guitars I had ever seen, including one with a body shaped like a skull and a neck fashioned by inserting a maple fretboard into a mannequin's very shapely leg.

    Bock The Robber Johnny Bottleneck 2010

  • And out, O fox, art like this: if thy might fail thee, thy sleight faileth thee not; and I doubt not that thy seeking my society is a fraud to get thy food; but I am none of those who fall to thee and put fist into thy fist; 170 for that Allah hath vouchsafed force to my wings and caution to my mind and sharp sight to my eyes; and I know that whoso apeth a stronger than he, wearieth himself and haply cometh to ruin.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Am now feeling strangely homesick although I’m much happier in France than I ever was in England and hardly ever go back (soppy ‘apeth that I am) …

    Yorkshire tag cloud 2007

  • And thou, O fox, art like this: if thy strength fail thee, thy cunning fails not; and I doubt not that thy seeking my friendship is a device to get thy subsistence; but I am none of those who put themselves at thy mercy, for God hath given me strength in my wings and caution in my heart and sight in my eyes, and I know that he who apeth a stronger than he, wearieth himself and is often destroyed, wherefore I fear for thee lest, if thou ape a stronger than thou, there befall thee what befell the sparrow. '

    The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume III Anonymous 1879

  • And out, O fox, art like this: if thy might fail thee, thy sleight faileth thee not; and I doubt not that thy seeking my society is a fraud to get thy food; but I am none of those who fall to thee and put fist into thy fist; [FN#170] for that Allah hath vouchsafed force to my wings and caution to my mind and sharp sight to my eyes; and I know that whoso apeth a stronger than he, wearieth himself and haply cometh to ruin.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • "Glad is my heart," said Martha, "that Herod be undone in the glory of display for apeth he not the Romans?

    The Coming of the King Bernie Babcock

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.