dap, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dap adj.

[SE dapper, spruce, neat]

1. (US black/P.R.) alert, aware, knowledgeable, sophisticated.

1956		Condon & Gehman Eddie Condon’s Treasury of Jazz 303: You don’t say hep any more [...] It means aware or sharp, but you don’t say it, man. The word now is dap. You want somebody to know a man is sharp, is au reet, you say he’s dap.
1961		J.A. Williams Night Song (1962) 158: Shit, he knew he was dap, had always been.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 30: ‘He’s young and dap, but he’s a very religious cat’.

2. (US black/P.R., also dapt) well-dressed.

1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 28: I was really dap, with my sharp brown-suede shoes [...] and a one-button roll suit.
1971		H.E Roberts Third Ear n.p.: dap, dapt adj. stylish; impeccably attired.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 22: Dark suits, roll collars, skinny silk ties, short hair — dap as a Russian pimp.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 42: Come fiendish, righteously dap to a tee, silk to the bone.
1981		Luther Thomas ‘Rapp Time’ 🎵 You can’t even hang with me until you dress and get more dap.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: dap – good or sexy-looking. Said of male or female.

3. (US black) of a person, pleasant, generous.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.

In compounds

dap daddy (n.) (also doogie daddy) [daddy n. (8); doogie = do good]

(US black) a well-dressed man.

1955		Jet 12 May 41: Classmates of Faith Berry, daughter of Cincinnati Councilman Ted Berry, call her handsome father a ‘Dap Daddy’.
1979		W. Coleman Mad Dog Black Lady 114: Boogie-woogie’n to some dap daddy ticklin’ ivories on the spin of a ’78.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 117: Others, like the dap daddy or doogie daddy, the cool dude or the cool cat, emphasize sharp dress as well as skillful talk.
1984		Western Humanities Rev. (UT) 44: there was a dap- daddy sittin' in one corner — yeah, you heard right, a dap- daddy 'cause he was every bit forty-five trying to look fifteen with his dizzy queen.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive ‘1950s–60s’.
1999		Ervin & Walker African American Scenebook 70: Lord, that man was a diamond in the rough, a dap-daddy — big, good looking and flashy. I listened to him and let him twist my very stockings.
2002		Carolina Morning News 🌐 Her painting ‘Dap Daddy and Sister Sue,’ [...] is set in the early 1900s and features a handsome African-American man in a white suit courting a woman in a long white dress.
2012		V. Garrick The Place 107: He had been a ‘dap daddy’ in his time, he was a ladies man.

In phrases

dapped down (adj.)

(US black) very well dressed.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 111: There is even a larger vocabulary that refers to being well dressed ([...] dapped down, choked down).
2012		A. Plotnik Better Than Great [ebook] Take just a few terms for ‘dressed stylishly’: Honey, you are dapped down, garmed up, trigged out, mockered up, prinked, duggy, and snappydap.

dapped to a T (adj.) (also dapped to a tee)

(US black) very well dressed.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 111: Expressions reserved for being extraordinarily well dressed (clothed heavy, dapped to a tee, decked to death, fonked out heavy).