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sap

Sap Sap, n. [AS. s[ae]p; akin to OHG. saf, G. saft, Icel. safi; of uncertain origin; possibly akin to L. sapere to taste, to be wise, sapa must or new wine boiled thick. Cf. Sapid, Sapient.] 1. The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition. [1913 Webster]

Note: The ascending is the crude sap, the assimilation of which takes place in the leaves, when it becomes the elaborated sap suited to the growth of the plant. [1913 Webster]

2. The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree. [1913 Webster]

3. A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang] [1913 Webster]

{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} (Zo["o]l.), 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. [1913 Webster]

Sap Sap, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Sapping.] [F. saper (cf. Sp. zapar, It. zapare), fr. sape a sort of scythe, LL. sappa a sort of mattock.] 1. To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. [1913 Webster]

Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

2. (Mil.) To pierce with saps. [1913 Webster]

3. To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken. [1913 Webster]

Ring out the grief that saps the mind. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

Sap Sap, v. i. To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. --W. P. Craighill. [1913 Webster]

Both assaults are carried on by sapping. --Tatler. [1913 Webster]

Sap Sap, n. (Mil.) 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. [1913 Webster]

{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. [1913 Webster]