ˈknapping, vbl. n.
[f. knap v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of knap v.1; the action of striking or knocking; a. spec. a form of cheating in throwing dice (see quots., and cf. knap n.2 3); b. in mod. local use, the action of breaking stones or flints.
| a. 1680 Kirkman Eng. Rogue iv. 226 Knapping, is when you strike one Die dead. 1822 Scott Nigel xxiii, Men talk of high and low dice,..topping, knapping, slurring. |
| b. 1835 Carlyle Let. in Froude Life in Lond. (1884) I. i. 24 Walk out of this if even into the knapping of stones. 1887 Magazine of Art X. 406 The third process, or ‘knapping’... Holding the flake or strip of flint with its face uppermost upon a ‘stake’ of iron [etc.]. 1892 Daily News 2 Dec. 6/1 There has never been a cessation of the Brandon flint ‘knapping’. |
c. attrib., as
knapping-hammer,
knapping-machine,
knapping-tool.
| 1785 Burns 1st Ep. to Lapraik xi, Ye'd better taen up spades and shools Or knappin-hammers. 1883 Archæol. Cant. XV. 103, I have..discovered numerous flint hammers, and knapping tools. |