hap
noun
one's luck or lot.
hap
1 American
[hap]
/ hæp /
noun
-
one's luck or lot.
-
an occurrence, happening, or accident.
verb (used without object)
happed,
happing
hap
2
American
[hap, ap]
/ hæp, æp /
noun
verb (used with object)
Hap
3
American
[hahp, kh ahp]
/ hɑp, xɑp /
noun
Egyptian Religion.
hap
1
British
/ hæp /
noun
-
luck; chance
-
an occurrence
verb
hap
2
British
/ hæp /
verb
noun
Etymology
Origin of hap1
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English, from Old Norse happ “luck, chance”; akin to Old English gehæp “fit, convenient”; probably akin to Old Church Slavonic kobŭ “auspice,” Old Irish cob “victory”
Origin of hap2
1350–1400; Middle English happen to cover; perhaps blend of lappen lap 2 and Old French happer to seize
Vocabulary lists containing hap
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Ngheu and chem chap hap sa, steamed clams and mussels, come in a buttery lemongrass broth.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2022
How then had a man so singularly drained of hap as the 57-year-old Israeli ended up controlling Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham United?
From The Guardian ● Jul. 14, 2011
Whatsoever, in the years to be, may hap to this new venture of mine ... it is for you, the peoples of Great and Greater Britain.
From Time Magazine Archive
War-weary Frenchmen, fed up with continual government crises, were hap py to let De Gaulle do the deciding.
From Time Magazine Archive
When one has such a dream and the predicted event hap pens, it’s hard not to believe in precognition.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
It pegs SD Guthrie and Hap Seng Plantations as its top picks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
Lansdale, the genre bard of East Texas, brings the deeply flawed and deeply human crime-fighting duo Hap and Leonard back for a 14th time.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2025
One hundred years ago this Thursday, goalie Hap Holmes and his exhausted Seattle Metropolitans were fighting to extend not only an epic overtime battle but their very franchise.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
Williams plays Leonard Pine, a gay Vietnam veteran, and James Purefoy plays Hap Collins, an ex-cop who is Leonard’s best friend.
From New York Times ● Feb. 28, 2023
Hap what hap may, I shall make you happy.
From The Blacksmith's Hammer, or The Peasant Code A Tale of the Grand Monarch by Sue, Eug?ne
Local clan leader Mohamed Abdirahman described the attack as horrible, adding that such an atrocity had never happed in the region before.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2022
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said this week the president had chosen Feb. 16 as the patriotic holiday partly ironically, in response to media reports an invasion could happed on Wednesday.
From Reuters ● Feb. 16, 2022
The same happed to Quvenzhané Wallis when she was cast in “Annie.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 10, 2015
"There's a big difference between with what happed with Jared and what happened with Chick-fil-A," said Carlton, who noted that Subway cut ties with Fogle.
From US News ● Aug. 19, 2015
He went on: “And you consate that all these steans be aboon folk that be happed here, snod an’ snog?”
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
And I actually listen to what these professionals say, keeping all of my self-diagnoses and Googled explanations for what's happing to my body to myself.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2020
"It is heart-breaking what is happing in Libya," said one customer, who gave his name only as Ismael.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 2011
Mildred is very happing in the company of Miss Charlotte Haxall, and Custis retains his serenity of character.
From Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by Lee, Robert Edward, General
"I wish ye had seen him," said his wife; "he was in such ecstasy that the tears were happing down his cheeks."
From Robert Burns by Shairp, John Campbell
Man after man fell out, and I saw the tears happing down their cheeks.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
