noun · verb · 12 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/hæp/
Australia:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -æp
CMU ARPABET:HH AE1 P
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Happenings; events; goings-on.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, in-plural, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
verb
Meaning 8
To happen; to befall; to chance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, intransitive, literary
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: come to pass, occur, transpire, bechance, befall, behap, belimp, betide, betime, beworth, chance, come about, crop up, evene, eventuate, go on, hap, happen, hold, pass, take place, tide
Antonyms: none provided
9
verb
Meaning 9
To happen to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, literary, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
10
verb
Meaning 10
To wrap, clothe.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
11
noun
Meaning 11
an accidental happening
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
he recorded all the little haps and mishaps of his life
Synonyms: happen, go on, pass off, occur, pass, fall out, come about, take place
Antonyms: none provided
Narrower terms: break, recrudesce, develop, arise, come up, result, intervene, transpire, give, operate, supervene, proceed, go, come, fall, anticipate, recur, repeat, go off, come off, go over, come around, roll around, happen, materialize, materialise, befall, bechance, betide, concur, coincide, backfire, backlash, recoil, chance, shine, strike, turn out, synchronize, synchronise, contemporize, contemporise
History
Etymology
From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp (“fit, convenient”) and/or Old Norse happ (“hap, chance, good luck”), from Proto-Germanic *hampą (“convenience, happiness”), from Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“good fortune, prophecy; to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed”). Cognate with Icelandic happ (“hap, chance, good luck”). Related also to Icelandic heppinn (“lucky, fortunate, happy”), Old Danish hap (“fortunate”), Swedish hampa (“to turn out”), Old Church Slavonic кобь (kobĭ, “fate”), Old Irish cob (“victory”). The verb is from Middle English happen, perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”), from the noun. Cognate with Old Danish happe (“to chance, happen”), Norwegian heppa (“to occur, happen”).
Clipping of happening.
Inherited from Old English hap.
Shortening of New Latin Haplochromis
Across languages
Translations
1 source translations are retained for this English entry.