crap

• IPA^(key): /kɹæp/
• Rhymes: -æp

• Audio (US)

  (file)

From Middle English crappe, also in plural: crappys, craps (“chaff; buckwheat”), from Middle French crape, from Old French crappe, crapin (“chaff”) (compare Medieval Latin crappa pl, also crapinum), from Old Dutch krappen (“to cut off, pluck off”) (whence Middle Dutch crappe, crap (“a chop, cutlet”), whence Dutch krip (“a steak”)). Related to crop.

crap (usually uncountable, plural craps)

1. (obsolete) The husk of grain; chaff.
2. (slang, mildly vulgar, uncountable) Something worthless or of poor quality; junk.

   The long-running game show went from offering good prizes to crap in no time.

3. (slang, mildly vulgar, uncountable) Nonsense; something untrue.

   The college student boasted of completing a 10,000-word essay on Shakespeare, but that claim was utter crap.

4. (slang, mildly vulgar) Faeces/feces.

   I stepped in some dog crap that was on the sidewalk.

5. (slang, mildly vulgar, countable) An act of defecation.

   I have to take a crap.

• The vulgarity of crap is a contentious topic, with many considering it to be a swear word while others do not. Nevertheless, it is generally considered to be impolite and is typically avoided in formal speech and writing.

• (faeces): poop, poo, dump, shit. Note: often used as a less vulgar synonym for, or minced form of, shit in all its senses.

crap (third-person singular simple present craps, present participle crapping, simple past and past participle crapped)

1. (mildly vulgar, slang, intransitive) To defecate.

   That soup tasted funny, and now I need to crap.

2. (mildly vulgar, slang, transitive) To defecate in or on (clothing etc.).

   He almost crapped his pants from fright.

3. (India, mildly vulgar, slang, transitive) To bullshit.

   Don't try to crap me: I know you're lying.

• (to shit): See Thesaurus:defecate
• (to BS): See bullshit

crap (comparative crapper, superlative crappest)

1. (chiefly UK, Canada, US, colloquial, mildly vulgar) Of poor quality.

   I drove an old crap car for ten years before buying a new one.

• crappy (chiefly Canada, US)

• lousy
• shit
• shite
• bollocks

• crapness

crap

1. (slang, often vulgar) Expression of worry, fear, shock, surprise, disgust, annoyance, or dismay.

   Oh crap! The other driver's going to hit my car!

   Crap! I lost the game.

   What the crap?!

   Aw, crap, I have to start over again from the beginning of the level.

From crab's eyes.

crap (plural craps)

1. (gambling, dice games) A losing throw of 2, 3, or 12 in craps.
2. Attributive form of craps.
   • 1974, John Savage, The Winner’s Guide to Dice, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, page 16:

     To test the possibility that her husband’s luck was indestructible, Mary went to the crap tables and made a small bet.

   • 1992, Edward Allen, Mustang Sally, New York, N.Y., London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 72:

     I step up to the least-crowded crap table, taking my place to the right of a country-and-western-type stickwoman with tightly permed blond hair who looks as if she would be more comfortable dressed in the square-dance outfit of the Frontier than wearing the chinoiserie, or maybe the japonaiserie, of her purple kimono uniform.

   • 2014 December 29, William Baldwin, “Yield Games”, in Forbes, page 103:

     Separately, you are playing in a crap game. The crap bets earn you $20,000 a year so long as rates stay put but could cost you a $100,000 or $200,000 loss if rates go up.

• crap out

• Michael Quinion (2004) “Crap”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.

• -carp, ACPR, APCR, CARP, Carp, RCAP, carp, parc, prac

• crup

From Middle Irish crapaid, ultimately from Norse, related to krappr.

• IPA^(key): /kɾˠapˠ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /kɾˠʌpˠ/[1] (corresponding to the alternative form crup)

crap (present analytic crapann, future analytic crapfaidh, verbal noun crapadh, past participle craptha)

1. (transitive, intransitive) to shrink ((cause to) become smaller), constrict (to narrow)
2. (intransitive) to contract (draw together, shorten, lessen)
3. (transitive) to crumple (cause to collapse)
4. to purse (press (the lips) together)
5. to roll up (make into a cylindrical or fold-like shape)

• “crap”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “crapaid, crapaigid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “crapaim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 191
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “crap”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

crap

1. Alternative form of crappe

From Serbo-Croatian krap and Bulgarian крап (krap).

• IPA^(key): /krap/

crap m (plural crapi)

1. Cyprinus carpio; European carp, common carp

• IPA^(key): [krap]

crap m (plural craps)

1. stone

From late Middle English crop

crap (plural craps)

1. Crop (and hence head, particularly of plants or top).

From Middle English crap, from Old French crappe.

• IPA^(key): /kɾap/

crap (plural crappès)

1. Part of a faggot or bush, withered furze, cut, but not made into faggots.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 32