Definitions

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

  • adjective Neatly dressed; trim.
  • adjective Very stylish in dress.
  • adjective Lively and alert.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pretty; elegant; neat; trim.
  • Small and active; nimble; brisk; lively.

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

  • adjective Little and active; spruce; trim; smart; neat in dress or appearance; lively.

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

  • adjective Neat, trim.
  • adjective Stylishly dressed, neatly dressed, spiffy.

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

  • adjective marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners

Etymologies

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

[Middle English daper, elegant, probably from Middle Dutch dapper, quick, strong.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English daper, from Middle Dutch dapper "stalwart, nimble", from Proto-Germanic *dapraz ‘heavy; bold’ (compare German tapfer "bold", Norwegian daper "saddened, dreary"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- ‘thick, heavy’ (compare Tocharian A tpär ‘high’, Latvian dàbls ‘strong’, Serbo-Croatian дебео (dèbeo) ‘fat’).

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Examples

Comments

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  • original meant heavy and strong then later meant quick and nimble

    July 25, 2007

  • a flapper's father

    October 8, 2010