sap.
The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
Meaning & usage
The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
Any juice.
Vitality.
A naive person; a simpleton.
Look at the sap mowing our lawn while we pretend our own lawnmower is broken.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sap-der. Proto-West Germanic *sap Old English sæp Middle English sap English sap From Middle English sap, from Old English sæp (“juice, sap”), from Proto-West Germanic *sap (“sap, juice”) (compare Dutch sap, German Saft, Icelandic safi), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap- (“to taste”) (compare Welsh syb-wydd (“fir”), Latin sapa (“must, new wine”), Russian со́пли (sópli, “snivel”), Old Armenian համ (ham, “taste”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌-𐬱𐬁𐬞𐬀 (vi-šāpa, “having poisonous juices”), Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”)). More at sage. sap (“naive person”) is a clipping of sapskull (literally “person with sap in their skull”).
To exhaust the vitality of.
To drain, suck or absorb sap from (a tree, etc.).
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sap-der. Proto-West Germanic *sap Old English sæp Middle English sap English sap From Middle English sap, from Old English sæp (“juice, sap”), from Proto-West Germanic *sap (“sap, juice”) (compare Dutch sap, German Saft, Icelandic safi), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap- (“to taste”) (compare Welsh syb-wydd (“fir”), Latin sapa (“must, new wine”), Russian со́пли (sópli, “snivel”), Old Armenian համ (ham, “taste”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌-𐬱𐬁𐬞𐬀 (vi-šāpa, “having poisonous juices”), Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”)). More at sage. sap (“naive person”) is a clipping of sapskull (literally “person with sap in their skull”).
To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
To gradually drain (someone's energy or vitality).
to sap one’s conscience
He saps my energy.
To pierce with saps.
To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps.
Where this word comes from
From French saper (compare Spanish zapar and Italian zappare) from sape (“sort of scythe”), from Late Latin sappa (“sort of mattock”). The sense evolution of from “subvert by digging” to “weaken” was influenced by the sense above “drain wood of sap” as trench warfare receded from public conscience.
A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc.
Where this word comes from
From French saper (compare Spanish zapar and Italian zappare) from sape (“sort of scythe”), from Late Latin sappa (“sort of mattock”). The sense evolution of from “subvert by digging” to “weaken” was influenced by the sense above “drain wood of sap” as trench warfare receded from public conscience.
A short wooden club; a leather-covered hand weapon; a blackjack.
Where this word comes from
Probably from sapling.
To strike with a sap (with a blackjack).
Where this word comes from
Probably from sapling.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.