Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Sap
Sap
,Noun.
1.
The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
☞ The ascending is the crude sap, the assimilation of which takes place in the leaves, when it becomes the elaborated sap suited to the growth of the plant.
2.
The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
3.
A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop.
[Slang]
Sap ball
(Bot.)
, any large fungus of the genus Polyporus. See
– Polyporus
. Sap green
, a dull light green pigment prepared from the juice of the ripe berries of the
– Rhamnus catharticus
, or buckthorn. It is used especially by water-color artists. Sap rot
, the dry rot. See under
– Dry
. Sap sucker
(Zool.)
, any one of several species of small American woodpeckers of the genus
– Sphyrapicus
, especially the yellow-bellied woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius
) of the Eastern United States. They are so named because they puncture the bark of trees and feed upon the sap. The name is loosely applied to other woodpeckers. Sap tube
(Bot.)
, a vessel that conveys sap.
Sap
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Sapped
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Sapping
.] [F.
saper
(cf. Sp. zapar
, It. zapare
), fr. sape
a sort of scythe, LL. sappa
a sort of mattock.] 1.
To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
Nor safe their dwellings were, for
Their houses fell upon their household gods.
sapped
by floods,Their houses fell upon their household gods.
Dryden.
2.
(Mil.)
To pierce with saps.
3.
To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
Ring out the grief that
saps
the mind. Tennyson.
Sap
,Verb.
I.
To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps.
W. P. Craighill.
Both assaults are carried on by
sapping
. Tatler.
Sap
,Noun.
(Mil.)
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.
Sap fagot
(Mil.)
, a fascine about three feet long, used in sapping, to close the crevices between the gabions before the parapet is made.
– Sap roller
(Mil.)
, a large gabion, six or seven feet long, filled with fascines, which the sapper sometimes rolls along before him for protection from the fire of an enemy.
Webster 1828 Edition
Sap
SAP
, n.1.
The juice of plants of any kind, which flows chiefly between the wood and the bark. From the sap of a species of maple, is made sugar of a good quality by evaporation.2.
The alburnum of a tree; the exterior part of the wood, next to the bark. [A sense in general use in New England.]SAP
, v.t.1.
To undermine; to subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine.Their dwellings were sapp'd by floods.
2.
To undermine; to subvert by removing the foundation of. Discontent saps the foundation of happiness. Intrigue and corruption sap the constitution of a free government.SAP
,Verb.
I.
Both assaults are carried on by sapping.
SAP
,Noun.