Dictionary Entry

clap

Part of SpeechnounPronunciation/klæp/Used In Literature ↓

The act of striking the palms of the hands, or any two surfaces, together.

In a Sentence

“He summoned the waiter with a clap.”

This entry also appears in ReadingWillow Preschool word lists, so students can move between the dictionary and year-level study sets.

Origin

Late Middle English, from Old English clæppan ‘to make a noise’.

Common Phrases

. claphands clapclap loud

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related Words

Poetry examples for “clap”

Excerpts from the ReadingWillow English Library collection.

Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away,
The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers.
Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May.

Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave impudence:
Time, that at last matures a clap to pox,
Whose gentle progress makes a calf an ox,

All side in parties, and begin the attack;
Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack;
Heroes' and heroines' shouts confusedly rise,

Lies my safe way; oh, for a cake of ice now
To clap unto nfty heart to comfort me.
Decrepit Winter hang upon iny shoulders.

the son of man goes forth to war
with trumpets clap and syphilis

I saw the heavens in warre against her rize:
Then downe she stricken fell with clap of thonder,
That with great noyse I wakte in sudden wonder.

blossoms blowing }
Or clap my wicked hands to fright the finches from the
rowen ?

(_Here_ JESUS _shall clap his hands, and the sparrows
shall fly away, chirruping._)

They get a forked stick to bear him down
And clap the dogs and take him to the town,
And bait him all the day with many dogs,

When red pied cow again their coming hears,
And ere they clap the gate she tosses up
Her head and hastens from the sport she fears: