[rap-ing] 
| 1. | the act or sound of a person or thing that raps. |
| 2. | communication by the sound of taps or knocks, as between medium and spirit during a séance. |
[rap] verb, rapped, rap⋅ping, noun | 1. | to strike, esp. with a quick, smart, or light blow: He rapped the door with his cane. |
| 2. | to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out a command. |
| 3. | (of a spirit summoned by a medium) to communicate (a message) by raps (often fol. by out). |
| 4. | Slang. to criticize sharply: Critics could hardly wait to rap the play. |
| 5. | Slang. to arrest, detain, or sentence for a crime. |
| 6. | Metallurgy. to jar (a pattern) loose from a sand mold. |
| 7. | to knock smartly or lightly, esp. so as to make a noise: to rap on a door. |
| 8. | Slang. to talk or discuss, esp. freely, openly, or volubly; chat. |
| 9. | Slang. to talk rhythmically to the beat of rap music. |
| 10. | a quick, smart, or light blow: a rap on the knuckles with a ruler. |
| 11. | the sound produced by such a blow: They heard a loud rap at the door. |
| 12. | Slang. blame or punishment, esp. for a crime. |
| 13. | Slang. a criminal charge: a murder rap. |
| 14. | Slang. response, reception, or judgment: The product has been getting a very bad rap. |
| 15. | Slang.
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| 16. | rap music. |
| 17. | beat the rap, Slang. to succeed in evading the penalty for a crime; be acquitted: The defendant calmly insisted that he would beat the rap. |
| 18. | take the rap, Slang. to take the blame and punishment for a crime committed by another: He took the rap for the burglary. |
[rap] | 1. | to carry off; transport. |
| 2. | to transport with rapture. |
| 3. | to seize for oneself; snatch. |
| rap 1 (rāp) v. rapped, rap·ping, raps v. tr.
To strike a quick light blow: rapped on the door. n.
[Middle English rappen, possibly of imitative origin.] |
| rap 2 (rāp) tr.v. rapt or rapped (rāpt), rap·ping, raps Archaic
[Back-formation from rapt.] |
| rap 4 (rāp) n.
[Possibly from rap1.] Our Living Language : The culture of hip-hop has been the source of dozens of words and expressions in American English, of which rap is one of the most familiar. The word is probably a development ultimately of rap meaning "to hit." It shows up in the early 1900s in the extended meaning "to express orally," as used by so notable a figure as Winston Churchill in 1933. Over the next few decades it came to mean "to discuss or debate informally," a meaning that was well established in the African-American community by the late 1960s. A decade later the word was applied to an evolving style of music characterized by, among other things, beat-driven rhymes of an often improvisatory nature. The slang that is integral to the lyrics of rap continues to be a source of borrowings into colloquial American English; recent examples include chill, meaning "to calm down," and dis, meaning "to show disrespect to." These are but the latest examples in a long series of such borrowings from Black English stretching back a century or more, many of them directly from popular music lyrics or from musicians' lingo. |
A form of pop music characterized by spoken or chanted rhymed lyrics, with a syncopated, repetitive accompaniment. Rap music originated in the second half of the twentieth century in black urban communities. (See also hip-hop.)
rap
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