Meaning

5 senses

  1. (archaic, uncountable)A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.

  2. (archaic, countable)A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.

  3. (archaic, in the plural, slang)Happenings; events; goings-on.

  4. (Pennsylvania, Scotland, UK, Western, archaic)A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.

  5. (archaic)Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.

More definitions
  • an accidental happening

Examples

1 sentences

  1. Year in and year out in this place we have naught but these little haps to lighten our thoughts.

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Translations

1 languages

Origin

From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or

From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp (“fit, convenient”) and/or Old Norse happ (“hap, chance, good luck”), from Proto-Germanic *hampą (“convenience, happiness”), from Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“good fortune, prophecy; to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed”).

Inherited from Old English hap.

Shortening of New Latin Haplochromis.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: haps
Singularhap
Pluralhaps

regular

Synonyms

3 synonyms
an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event:hazardB1
serendipity
happenings:affairs

Word family

13 related words
DerivedhaphazardC2haplessC2happenA1happyA1perhapsA2goodhaphapfulhaplymayhapmishapunhapafterhapshap-harlot

Lessons for this word

1 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
hanjahankhankerhaphazardC2haplessC2
hap — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto