sap

Definitions

1. 1.The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
2. 2.A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang] Sap ball (Bot.), any large fungus of the genus Polyporus. See Polyporus. -- Sap green, a dull light green pigment prepared from the juice of the ripe berries of the Rhamnus catharticus, or buckthorn. It is used especially by water-color artists. -- Sap rot, the dry rot. See under Dry. -- Sap sucker (Zoöl.), any one of several species of small American woodpeckers of the genus Sphyrapicus, especially the yellow-bellied woodpecker (S. varius) of the Eastern United States. They are so named because they puncture the bark of trees and feed upon the sap. The name is loosely applied to other woodpeckers. -- Sap tube (Bot.), a vessel that conveys sap.
3. 3.To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. Dryden.
4. 4.(Mil.) To pierce with saps.
5. 5.To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken. Ring out the grief that saps the mind. Tennyson.
6. 6.To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. W. P. Craighill. Both assaults carried on by sapping. Tatler.
7. 7.A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc. Sap fagot (Mil.), a fascine about three feet long, used in sapping, to close the crevices between the gabions before the parapet is made. -- Sap roller (Mil.), a large gabion, six or seven feet long, filled with fascines, which the sapper sometimes rolls along before him for protection from the fire of an enemy.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is sap.

• What is to subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. Dryden called?
• What is to make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken. Ring out the grief that saps the mind. Tennyson called?
• What is to proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. W. P. Craighill. Both assaults carried on by sapping. Tatler called?