Other forms: clapping, claps, clapped
To clap is to hit your two open hands together, over and over, because you liked what you saw. The end of a concert, a school play, a plane landing after a bad flight.
You clap a performer, clap along to the music, clap someone on the back when they have done well — that last one is a single firm hit, not applause. Clap is a noun too, and the loudest of them is a clap of thunder, meaning the crack rather than the long rumble. A teacher claps twice to bring a class to order; children clap their hands in counting games. Spelling: the past tense doubles the p, clapped. And in British English, to clap eyes on someone means to see them, usually after a long gap.
1verbclapTo hit your hands together repeatedly to show that you liked something.
“The whole room stood up and clapped.”
synonyms: applaud
2verbputTo put or hit something somewhere quickly and firmly with your hand.
“He clapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself laughing.”
3nounsuddenA sudden loud noise, especially of thunder.
“A clap of thunder shook the windows.”
4nountogetherOne hit of the hands together.
“She got their attention with a single clap.”
Clap is one of those words that is simply its own sound. Old English clæppan goes back to Proto-Germanic klappōną, to clap, and the same noise survives in Dutch klappen and Danish klappe. Nobody assembled this word out of parts — somebody heard two hands meet and wrote it down.
Proto-Germanic
*klappōną — to clap
Proto-West Germanic
*klappijan
Old English
clæppan
Middle English
clappen
English, today
clap
From Middle English clappen, from Old English clæppan, clappian, from Proto-West Germanic klappijan, klappōn, from Proto-Germanic klappōną (“to clap”). Cognate with Dutch klappen, Icelandic klappa, Faroese klappa and Danish klappe.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA