[f. LAP v.2 + -ING1.] The action of LAP v.2 in various senses.
† 1. The action of wrapping up in something; in quots. concr. A wrapping; trappings, wraps. b. Folding (in the arms); embracing; also caressing, fondling. c. Winding up (of a matter). Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 28. Þou reftist him al þe lappinge of pride and ipocrisie.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 476. So lufftly, so lykyng with lapping in armys.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 515/2. Wappynge, happynge or hyllynge (S. lappynge).
1549. Latimer, 4th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 122. There is not a more comfortable lesson in all the scripture, then here now in the lappyng vp of the matter.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xxxi. 54. The loving part in her, wanted an object; so play, and lapping of it [her dog], made her place it there.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 3. As those casual lappings and flowing streamers were imitated from nothing.
d. concr. (See quot.).
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Lapping, a kind of machine blanket or wrapping material, used by calico-printers, &c., and made either plain, twilled, or fine.
2. The action of causing one thing to lap over another; the condition of being so placed. Also concr. the part that laps over.
1607. Markham, Caval., II. (1617), 173. Which indeede importes a lapping or folding ouer of the outmost legge ouer the inmost.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 67. Two Boards are thus lapped on the edges over one another, this lapping over is called Rabbetting.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 146. Gain … is … us’d for the lapping of the end of the Joyst, &c. upon a Trimmer or Girder.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., In the polar seas, lapping applies to the young or thin ice, one plate overlapping another.
3. The process of forming into laps; attrib. in lapping cylinder, machine (cf. LAP sb.3 6).
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 381. The doffing-plate continually strips the doffer cylinder of the carded cotton, which it delivers upon the lapping cylinder in one continuous web of about 18 inches wide.
1851. L. D. B. Gordon, in Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., p. iv**/1. The web of cleaned cotton … is passed through a lapping machine.
