hasp
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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hasps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hasped,
past participle, past
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hasping
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
haspsimple
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haspssimple
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have haspedperfect
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has haspedperfect
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am haspingprogressive
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are haspingprogressive
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is haspingprogressive
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have been haspingperfect progressive
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has been haspingperfect progressive
Past
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haspedsimple
-
had haspedperfect
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was haspingprogressive
-
were haspingprogressive
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had been haspingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hasp
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hæsp, hæpse; cognate with German Haspe hasp; akin to Dutch haspel reel, Old Norse hespa skein, hasp
Explanation
A hasp is part of a latch or lock. Most hasps are flat metal plates with a hinge, often including a metal loop that a lock fits through. If you've ever used a padlock, you've also used a hasp (probably without knowing what to call it). The metal plate that opens and closes and is held shut once you insert your padlock? That's a hasp! Hasp is a verb too, meaning "lock by securing a hasp," although it's rarely used today. The origin of this word isn't clear, but we know it's related to the Norse hespa, "fastening."
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:
After an hour searching dusty corridors, I found a door with a smart padlock and the remains of a hasp lying on the floor beside it.
From Nature ● May 19, 2020
And then Matt hears the sound of the window hasp being turned and the sound of the window opening.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 31, 2019
But now, Sokolove said for the first time publicly that he remembered that the hasp lock to the shed door was in the secure, closed position.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2015
The garage door wasn’t locked; Gibson had the padlock on the door, but not through the hasp.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 24, 2014
There was nothing to do but to pull the door tight upon its wooden hinges and fasten the iron hasp.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
Mr. Guffaw said, 'We know where these hasps are, but cannot reveal their whereabouts at present.'
From Time Magazine Archive
The Ministry of Bubbleblowing denied yesterday, with an oath, that the 15,000,000 missing hasps had been found in a field near Asminster.
From Time Magazine Archive
But a Woman's Defence League candidate has stepped in, to demand equal hasps for wives, in order to end the serfdom of married women.
From Time Magazine Archive
Poirot undid the hasps and lifted the lid.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
Other Germans were securing the hasps on the car doors with wire and spikes and other trackside trash.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
From the center of the back of the box a square was cut out and a trap door fitted in and hasped down.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 821, September 26, 1891 by Various
Within, a tall wizened man, with dead fishy eyes, stalked nervously to and fro on a platform, beside which a hastily constructed coffin with a hasped cover stood on three sawhorses.
From The Secret of Lonesome Cove by Samuel Hopkins Adams
"Lizzie is out," Lady O'Gara said, glancing at the door hasped and padlocked.
From Love of Brothers by Katharine Tynan
The great padlock, however, on the former, with characteristic acuteness, was looked without being hasped, so that, in a few seconds, my old guide had undone all the fastenings, and we found ourselves under shelter.
From Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune by Charles James Lever
It was a monkey, with whiskers and a calico jacket, who jumped out of a box when the cover was lifted; and then you crushed him down and hasped him in.
From Stories of Childhood by Rossiter Johnson
Presently, hasping these things firmly in, she went to the door, and opened it a cautious crack.
From Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby by Kathleen Thompson Norris
Bacon heard the rusty bolt shoot into its socket, and then the hasping and locking of the outside door, with a sensation of utter hopelessness.
From The Cavaliers of Virginia or, The Recluse of Jamestown. Vol. II by William A. (Alexander) Caruthers
So Nicky-Nan contented himself with closing the door carefully and hasping it.
From Nicky-Nan, Reservist by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
These were her thoughts as she went about the house, hasping windows and bolting doors, with a dreary sense of the futility of caution.
From Moor Fires by E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young
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.
