Other forms: laps, lapped, lapping
Your lap is the flat place your legs make when you sit down. Where a cat settles, or a plate balances.
It exists only while you are sitting, which is a nice piece of English, since standing up makes it disappear. It gives us laptop, lap dog and sitting on somebody's lap. There are two other words spelled the same: a lap is one circuit of a track, which is why runners talk about the last lap, and to lap is what a cat does to milk. Something landing in your lap has arrived without effort.
1nounlapThe flat surface formed by the upper legs when sitting.
“The child fell asleep on her lap.”
2nouncompleteOne complete circuit of a track.
“He overtook on the final lap.”
3verbdrinkTo drink by scooping liquid with the tongue.
“The dog lapped noisily at the bowl.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
A lap is a fold. Middle English lappen meant to fold or to wrap, from a root meaning to bend or turn, so your lap is what appears when you fold at the waist, and a lap of a track is one turn.
Proto-Indo-European
*leb- — to hang loosely
Proto-Germanic
*lappô — cloth; rag
Proto-West Germanic
*lappō
Old English
læppa — skirt or flap of a garment
Middle English
lappe
English, today
lap
From Middle English lappe, from Old English læppa (“skirt or flap of a garment”), from Proto-West Germanic lappō, from Proto-Germanic lappô (“cloth; rag”), of unknown origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European leb- (“to hang loosely”). Cognate with Dutch lap (“cloth; rag”), German Lappen (“cloth; lobe; flap”), Icelandic leppur (“rag; patch”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA