chap
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chapIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃæp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
intransitive
Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
noun
A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
Southern US
A child.
One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
Used this way, chap is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use chap
- “My lips chap in this dry weather.”verb
- “That chap is your host.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: cleft or crack or or chink
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.