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Definition of "knap" []

  • To break or chip (stone) with sharp blows, as in shaping flint or obsidian into tools. (verb-transitive)
  • Chiefly British To strike sharply; rap. (verb-transitive)
  • Chiefly British To snap at or bite. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "knap" in a sentence
  • "A Knapper may have lived on a "knap," or may have been one of the Suffolk flint-knappers, who still prepare gun-flints for weapons to be retailed to the heathen."
  • "And, yes, the documentary, narrated by Linda Hunt and consisting of some remarkable photographs and early wax recordings, did say that Ishi taught his new hosts how to "knap" brittle rocks into arrowheads and spear points."
  • "Where I hunt there are briars galore and I need a material that has a low knap so it doesn't snag."