hap1
/hap
/archaic
noun [mass noun]
1Luck; fortune: if you have the good hap to come into their houses...
- And yes, we got ourselves kidnapped by a bunch of off-duty and retired soldiers who were enjoying a Friday beating up hapless journalists (and boy, were we showing no hap at all) far too much.
- Notice that in this case we will have a violation of the doctrine of determinism, and indeed determinism might be expressed simply as the thesis that nothing ever occurs by mere hap.
- When an event occurs by mere hap, there is an element of randomness in its coming about; it might not have occurred, even if all of the conditions relevant to its production had been the same.
1.1 [count noun] A chance occurrence, especially an event that is considered unlucky: I entertained the Company with the many Haps and Disasters...
- Happen gives us take place, arrive, come, recur; hap generates chance, accident, hazard, event.
- Whether he makes a lame attempt for a steal or a weak effort at a double-team hap, the result is usually an easy basket for an opponent.
verb (haps, happing, happed) [no object]
1Come about by chance: what can hap to him worthy to be deemed evil?...
- He said: ‘It was, without a doubt, the best thing that happed to the club.’
- The weirdest thing happed to me a few days ago.
- In the case of the policeman who is suing for being put back on the beat, he described an incident where he happed upon the scene of a road accident and was too scared to go and help.
1.1 [with infinitive] Have the fortune or luck to do something: where’er I happ’d to roam
Origin
Middle English: from Old Norse happ.
Rhymes
hap2
/hap/verb (haps, happing, happed) [with object] Scottish & Northern Irish
Cover or wrap with a blanket or warm clothes: Col rode on her back, happed up in a tartan plaid my Mum happed me up...
- Hap up well, young man, his teachers had always tellt him.
- I know the forecast is still looking pretty grim, but I am really looking forward to my final day of being happed up on the cathedral steps.
- Partygoers have been warned only to leave the house well happed up and with an umbrella.
Origin
Late Middle English: of uncertain origin; perhaps an alteration of lap2.