verb. (old).—1. To steal, receive, accept, endure, etc. Thus, TO KNAP A CLOUT = to steal a handkerchief; TO KNAP THE SWAG = to grab the booty; TO KNAP SEVEN OR FOURTEEN PENN’ORTH = to get seven or fourteen years’; TO KNAP THE GLIM = to catch a clap. In making a bargain TO KNAP the sum offered is to accept it. MR. KNAP’S BEEN THERE, is said of a pregnant woman. TO KNAP THE RUST = to fall into a rage. Originally (as in quots. 1537 and 1566) KNAP = to strike: whence KNAP (theatrical) = a manual retort rehearsed and arranged; TO TAKE (or GIVE) THE KNAP = to receive (or administer) a sham blow; and KNAPPER = the head or RECEIVER GENERAL (q.v.).
1537. Thersites [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, i. 428]. She KNAPPETH me in the nose.
1566. KNOX, The History of the Reformation in Scotland, I. i. 147 (Wodrow Society, 1846). And then begane no litill fray, but yitt a meary game; for rockettis war rent, typpetis war torne, crounis war KNAPPED.
1714. T. LUCAS, Memoirs of Gamesters, etc., 27. He was not ignorant in KNAPPING, which is, striking one Die dead, and let the other run a Milstone.
1820. London Magazine, i. 26. It was their husband’s object to KNAP their thimbles.
1821. D. HAGGART, Life, p. 51.
1839. G. W. REYNOLDS, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. We’ll KNAP a fogle with fingers fly.
2. (pugilists’).—To be in PUNISHMENT (q.v.); to CATCH IT (q.v.). TO KNAP A HOT ’UN = to receive a hard blow.
3. (American thieves’).—To arrest.—MATSELL (1859).
TO KNAP THE STOOP, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1821. P. EGAN, Real Life in London, ii., 97. ‘Having once been made inspector of the pavement, or in other words KNAPP’D THE STOOP.’
TO KNAP A JACOB FROM A DANNA-DRAG, verb. phr. (old).—To steal the ladder from a nightman’s cart, while the men are absent, in order to effect an ascent to a one-pair-of-stairs window, to scale a garden-wall, etc.—DE VAUX. See KNAP.
