lap

noun20

1. •
   the top side of someone's legs while they sit, where things can be held or rest

   • The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.
2. •
   The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.
3. •
   One circuit around a race track.

   • to run twenty laps
4. •
   The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.
5. •
   The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.

   • With each lap of its tongue a cat gathers up milk and throws it well back into the gateway of its throat […] — 1955
6. •
   That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.
7. •
   A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.
8. •
   The act or process of lapping.
9. •
   The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.

   • The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
10. •
    The amount by which a slide valve at its half stroke overlaps a port in the seat, being equal to the distance the valve must move from its mid stroke position in order to begin to open the port. Used alone, lap refers to outside lap (see below).
11. •
    (figurative) A place of rearing and fostering.
12. •
    The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
13. •
    An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
14. •
    A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, etc. or in polishing cutlery or in toolmaking. It is usually in the form of a wheel or disk that revolves on a vertical axis.
15. •
    A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
16. •
    In card playing and other games, the points won in excess of the number necessary to complete a game;—so called when they are counted in the score of the following game.
17. •
    (informal) Clipping of laparoscopy.
18. •
    (informal) Clipping of laparotomy
19. •
    (slang, no longer used) Liquor; alcoholic drink.
20. •
    (euphemistic, no longer used) The female pudenda.

verb13

1. •
   To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.

   • Don’t lap your soup like that! You look like a dog.
2. •
   To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

   • I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag. — 1870
3. •
   To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
4. •
   To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
5. •
   To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.

   • One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.
6. •
   To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.

   • The cloth laps back.
   • The boats lap; the edges lap.
7. •
   to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up

   • About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk. — 1704
8. •
   to wind around
9. •
   to envelop, enfold
10. •
    To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.

    • Her garment spreads, and laps him in the fold. — 1693
11. •
    To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.
12. •
    To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
13. •
    To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.

adjective1

1. •
   (informal) Clipping of laparoscopic.

noun1

1. •
   Initialism of load, assemble, pack (“munitions operations”).