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• hap
  hap

  noun

  one's luck or lot.
• Hap
  Hap

  noun

  Apis.

hap

¹ American  

[hap] / hæp /

noun

1. one's luck or lot.

2. an occurrence, happening, or accident.

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verb (used without object)

happed, happing

1. to happen.

   if it so hap.

hap ² American  

[hap, ap] / hæp, æp /

noun

1. a comforter or quilt.

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verb (used with object)

1. to cover with or as with a comforter or quilt.

Hap ³ American  

[hahp, khahp] / hɑp, xɑp /

noun

Egyptian Religion.

1. Apis.

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hap ¹ British  

/ hæp /

noun

1. luck; chance

2. an occurrence

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verb

1. (intr) an archaic word for happen

hap ² British  

/ hæp /

verb

1. to cover up; wrap up warmly

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noun

1. a covering of any kind

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hap Hap happed happing

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

The Black Prince is that rarest of novels, one which conveys the texture, the immediacy, the superb improbability of love as it hap pens.

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

CGS International maintains an overweight rating on Malaysia’s plantation sector and continues to favor upstream companies including TA Ann and Hap Seng Plantations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

Lansdale makes a triumphant return to his Hap and Leonard novels with this scorcher.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2024

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

The other defining event of his childhood seems to have been an accident involving his older brother, Hap, and a wagon that led to the amputation of one of Hap’s legs.

From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2021

Hap and row, hap and row, Hap and row the feetie o't; I never kent I had a bairn Until I heard the greetie o't.

From Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories A Book for Bairns and Big Folk by Robert Ford

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

“The site needs a faster path to e-mobility,” the newspaper quoted Cavallo as saying, adding this should happed in 2024.

From Reuters ● Oct. 2, 2021

Much of what happed during Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin at a Group of 20 summit in Japan in 2019 isn’t known.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 28, 2021

"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

Ilk happing bird, wee helpless thing, That in the merry months o' spring, Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o' thee?

From Robert Burns by John Campbell Shairp

Ilk happing bird, wee helpless thing, That in the merry month o’ spring Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o’ thee?

From Life of Robert Burns by Thomas Carlyle

Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing, That, in the merry months o’ spring, Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o’ thee?

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns

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