▪ I. neap, n.1 north. dial. and U.S.
(niːp)
Also 6, 9 nepe, 7 neep, nape.
[perh. of Scand. origin: cf. Norw. dial. neip a forked pole, a wooden stay (Aasen), Icel. neip the space between two fingers.]
1. The pole or tongue of a cart. (Now U.S.) Also attrib. in † nepe-yoke.
| 1553 Inventory in Midl. Counties Hist. Collector (1855) I. 233 Itm iij waynes, iij dongcarts..iij nepe yoks. 1659 Hoole Comenius' Vis. World (1672) 173 The parts of a Wagon are, the Neep (or draught-tree) [etc.]. 1877 C. D. Warner Being a Boy i, When I rode on the neap of the cart, and drove the oxen. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 613/1 They had..perched themselves on a cart neap. |
2. (See quots.)
| 1691 Ray N.C. Words (ed. 2) 51 A Nape or Neap; a piece of Wood, that hath two or three feet, with which they bear up the fore-part of a laded Wain. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Neap,..a three-legged rest, constructed of natural branches, and used to support the shaft of a vehicle. |
▪ II. neap, a. and n.2
(niːp)
Forms: 1 nép-, 5–8 neep, (6 -e), 6–8 nepe, (6 nep, neb, 7 nape), 7–8 neipe, (8 niepe, nip), 6– neap, (6–7 -e).
[OE. nép in népflód, of obscure etym. and meaning, otherwise found only in Exod. 469 in the phrase forðganges nép, app. = ‘without power of advancing’. Da. niptid is prob. from English.]
1. neap tide, a tide occurring shortly after the first and third quarters of the moon, in which the high-water level stands at its lowest point. † Orig. neap-flood, and occas. with other ns. as stream. Also neap rise (see quot.); neap season, the time of neap tide.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) Int. 196 Ledo, nep flod. c 850 O.E. Martyrol. 40 Se fylleðflod bið nemned on leden malina, & se nepflod ledo. c 1050 Suppl. ælfric's Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 182 Ledona, nepflod vel ebba. |
| 1479 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 425 That they leue resonable stuff upon the bak fro spryng to spryng, to serue the pouere people..in the neep sesons. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 131 Thre horsemen..whiche wel knewe the hauen of Calice, came at a nepe tide. 1561 Eden Arte Navig. ii. xviii, Whiche the Mariners call nepe tydes, lowe ebbes, lowe waters, dead waters, or lowe fluddes. 1622 Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 155 Our shippe..in the neap streames comming a-ground in the sterne. 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 3025/3 The great Ships..wanted Water to come over the Flatts..by reason of the Neep Tides. 1720 Strype Stow's Surv. (1754) I. i. vi. 34/2 The Tides were then at the Neapest. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 390 The spring tides will be greater..and the neap tides on that account will be less. 1860 All Year Round No. 69. 449 The tides are weak, or neap; the oscillation of the sea is less. 1870 Proctor Other Worlds iii. 73 We have tides ranging between the highest spring tides..and the lowest neap tides. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 369/2 The height between high-water mark at neap tide and mean low-water mark at spring tide is called the neap rise. |
| fig. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. xii. 73 When ebbing bloods neap tides shall strike thy lims With trembling Palsies. 1875 Tennyson Q. Mary i. v, The realm is poor, The exchequer at neap-tide [ed. 1, neap-ebb]. |
2. absol. as n. A neap tide.
| 1584 in J. J. Cartwright Chapt. Hist. Yorks (1872) 268 We say that there ryseth at the sprynge 18 foott water, and at the nepe eleaven foot water. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 91 So do the Neaps too after the Quarters. 1679 Salmon Horæ Math. iv. xvii. 405 The Neaps and lowest Tides at her..quarters. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The lowest of the neap is four days before the full or change—on which occasion the seamen say, that it is deep neep. 1776 Cook in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 448 During the neep, the tide was very inconsiderable. 1849 H. Miller Footpr. Creat. xiii. (1874) 233 A zone still less deeply covered by water, and which even the lower neaps expose. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. v. (ed. 2) 146 For both springs and neaps give the height of high water. |
b. In phr. dead neap: see dead a. 27.
| 1589 Greene Tullie's Love C 3 The lowest ebbe may haue his flow, and the deaddest neape his full tide. 1627 Hakewill Apol. (1630) 131 High springs and dead Neapes. a 1641 [see dead a. 27]. 1751 Anc. St. Navig. Lyn, etc. 24 Ships of considerable Burden could..come up to the Townside at Low-water, and even at dead Niepe. 1882 White's Lincolnsh. Direct. 750 Ships of over 500 tons register can come to Sutton Bridge at dead neap. |
▪ III. neap, v.
(niːp)
Forms: 7 nepe, 8 neep, neip, 8– neap.
[f. neap n.2]
1. intr. a. Of tides: To become lower, to tend towards the neap. Also pass.
| 1652–62 Heylin Cosmogr. Introd. (1682) 23 From the first quarter to the full it [the sea] is said to spring: from the full to the last quarter it is said to nepe. 1854 G. B. Richardson Univ. Code v. (ed. 12) 3270 The tides are neaped. 1866 Even. Star 24 Mar., The tides are now neaping. |
b. To reach the highest point of neap tide.
| 1805 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 410/2 At 40 minutes past 2 the tide had neaped and fell above 3 inches. |
2. to be neaped: of a vessel (see quots.).
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Neipe, When a Ship wants Water, so that she cannot get out of a Harbour, off from the Ground, or out of the Dock, the Seamen say she is Neiped. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Neaped, the situation of a ship which is left aground on the heighth of a spring-tide. 1835 Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xxxiii. 467 The tides were now diminishing, while we could not run the risk of being neaped in this manner. 1865 Pall Mall G. 21 Nov. 6 Owing to a sudden change in the river.., the Mooltan is neaped, and cannot leave here until the 14th inst. 1891 Law Times XC. 248/2 Inasmuch as she could load ‘always afloat’ in the dock, she was not entitled to leave it in order to avoid being neaped. |
b. trans. with personal agent. rare—1.
| 1770 in Hawkesworth Voy. (1773) III. 559, I hauled her bow close ashore; but kept her stern afloat, because I was afraid of neiping her. |