Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also sapling, sappy) a fool, a dupe.

1793		J. O’Keeffe World in a Village (1794) 33: What a sap I was to come this way, just under Mr. Allbut’s nose.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 293: They’re sporting the door of the Custom-house, and the auld sap at Hazlewood House has ordered off the guard.
1833		Satirist (London) 12 May 6/2: ‘[W]ho but the grossest sap would think of adopting summery measures at the very commencement of spring?’.
1837		Town (London) n.p.: Years back, if a man of property wanted to provide for a discarded mistress, it was the fashion to look out for some bloodless sappy, to whom was given a sum of money to marry her.
1857		‘Currer Bell’ (C. Brontë) Professor 43: If you are patient because you think it a duty to meet an insult with submission, you are an essential sap.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ in Punch 1 Dec. 253/2: It plays into the ’ands of the mugs and the mivvies, the saps and the sneaks.
1891		‘’Arry on Wheels’ in Punch 7 May 217/1: I ain’t one o’ them skinny shanked saps [...] / Wot do records on roads for the honour, and faint or go slap off their chump.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 26 Oct. 4/1: Who was the long sapling that followed the young lady to Church on Sunday.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 120: sap, from saphead, sap-pate, or sapscull. A fool.
c.1918		B. Bennett ‘Doctor Goosegrease’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 15: All your doctors are saps — all excepting me, p’raps.
1919		A. Baer Flapping Over New Leaves 4 Jan. [synd. col.] We know some sapps who turned over a new leaf and then discovered the leaf was poison ivy.
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 24 Jan. [synd. col.] We don’t know who the zapp is who originates snappy clothes for highpowered youths.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 295: Have you went to work and wed somebody on me, you big sapolio?
1927		R. Lardner ‘Hurry Kane’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 88: When the big sapper showed up at Fort Gregg, he didn’t get much of a welcome.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 69: The men of this level were ‘saps’ and ‘softies’ to him, but he envied them their women.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 187: paul: Where d’you want the apples, Mr. Nebbick? director: Well for cripes – on the tree, sapadillo.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 88: Flapper: They were poor saps — they’d never have made a Beef Trust pay .
c.1930		‘When Mother Was a Girl’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 59: Some john Sap who stroked your snatch, fondled your can and [...] got your nuts generally overheated.
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 I have to kid the sapolo along in order to get the dope on the payroll.
1939		J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 35: I wasn’t exactly a sap when we were partners a year ago.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 59: Boys in general have a great flair for derogatory and vituperative expression [...] swot, swank, sneak, jew, swine, tick, scoff, cad, blog, nip, oik, lout, wet, drip, squit, squirt, mug, scug, sap, simp, seet, gump, muff, goof, goop, waft.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 16 Sept. [synd. cartoon strip] They’re trimming a new sap.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 79: Don’t be a sap!
1958		Ella Fitzgerald ‘You’re an Old Smoothie’ 🎵 Poor me, you played me for a sap.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 110: I’ve met that big sap you use fo a boy friend.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 97: Lissen, you sap. If I was a chick lissenen’ to that song I would think . . . man, that guy’s one fuckin’ rag.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Christmas Crackers’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Would the owner of the brand-new Rolls Royce Corniche kindly move it as it’s obstructing some sap’s three-wheeled van!
1990		R. Doyle Snapper 38: The poor little sappo, said Johnny Sr.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 95: [T]heir roadie or her boyfriend or whatever the poor sap was.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 5: Yir no feart ay they wee fuckin saps ur ye?
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 46: Saps an ineffective male: u. me nuh deal wid saps.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 23: U was da biggest sap in town till we took yo [...] faggot ass in.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 20: [A] clueless sap.
2012		J. Robinson Gospel of the Game 10: Had that poor hard-working sap failed to get a paycheck, he would have had to sleep on the couch.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 20: Been messed around by a couple of wankers, broken a few saps’ hearts.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 109: She socked the saps into the saddle and made with the moans.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 11: What a focking sap, I think.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1922

Ogden Standard-Examiner (UT) 18 June 37/2: The old bird would like nothing better than to see her sap son grab off a lot of dough.