a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
a sound made by or as if by such a blow or smack: the slap of the waves against the dock.
a sharply worded or sarcastic rebuke or comment.
verb (used with object),slapped,slap·ping.
to strike sharply, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
to bring (the hand, something flat, etc.) with a sharp blow against something.
to dash or cast forcibly: He slapped the package against the wall.
to put or place promptly and sometimes haphazardly (often followed by on): The officer slapped a ticket on the car. He slapped mustard on the sandwich.
adverb
Informal. directly; straight; smack: The tug rammed slap into the side of the freighter.
Verb Phrases
slap down,
to subdue, especially by a blow or by force; suppress.
to reject, oppose, or criticize sharply: to slap down dissenting voices.
Idioms
slap on the wrist, relatively mild criticism or censure: He got away with a slap on the wrist.
Origin of slap
1
First recorded in 1625–35,slap is from the Low German word slapp, slappe; of expressive orig.
late 15c., "strike with the open hand," from slap (n.). As an adverb, 1670s, "suddenly;" 1829, "directly." Related: Slapped; slapping.
slap
n.
mid-15c., probably of imitative origin, similar to Low German slappe, German Schlappe. Figurative meaning "insult, reprimand" is attested from 1736. Slap-happy (1936) originally meant "punch-drunk." Slap on the wrist "very mild punishment" dates from 1914.
Restrain or correct emphatically, as in They thought he was getting far too arrogant and needed to be slapped down. This idiom, which literally means “inflict a physical blow,” began to be used figuratively in the first half of the 1900s.
