Meaning
5 senses(archaic, uncountable)A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.
(archaic, countable)A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.
(archaic, in the plural, slang)Happenings; events; goings-on.
(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.
(archaic)Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.
- an accidental happening
Examples
1 sentencesYear in and year out in this place we have naught but these little haps to lighten our thoughts.
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with orFrom 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: hapsSynonyms
3 synonymsWord family
13 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.