Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a man, or boy, esp. in sense of ‘one of us’.

1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 75: Then down steps a Member, and [...] takes a wonderful liking to the same Beast [...] on Purpose to spur on the Chap, and to make him the more fond of being confoundedly cheated.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 41: And why it was so big, if you wou’d know the Reason, / It was to keep their Chaps at work that would be prattling Treason.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera I iv: Wife, rip out the Coronets and Marks of these dozen of Cambric Handkerchiefs, for I can dispose of them this Afternoon to a Chap in the City.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 21: Then thou may’st e’en dress thy self, says the old Chap.
1749		Secret Hist. of M--P-- 51: These men of war chaps are damnably insolent.
1756		J. Cox Narrative of Thief-takers, alias Thief-makers 64: I saw the two Chaps that robbed and beat me.
1786		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Ode Upon Ode’ Works (1794) I 412: In the face of some unlucky chap.
c.1791		Kilmainham Minit in Walsh Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1885) 88: For Luke was ever the chap / To boozle the bull-dogs and pinners.
1795		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Royal Tour’ Works (1796) IV 88: Fine things, for legs of thieving chaps.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 207: Let me see how many rampant chaps have been brought to their bearings in that house, without the dear deluded husband being waked.
1818		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris Letter VI 51: But never fear — I know my chap.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) II 100: But, my lads, you must own that he is a crafty chap.
1831		N.T.H. Bayly Spitalfields Weaver I i: Ho! ho! you’re there are you — the chap I knocked over half an hour ago.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 19: Government has offered a reward for the diskivery of the chap wot carried off Sir Christopher Blunt.
1855		J.S. Coyne Pippins and Pies 26: Bob Smart, who was such a jolly chap!
1867		H.L. Williams Ticket-of-Leave Man 23: Do you know how a chap feels when he’s going mad? [...] I’ve written to the lawyer chap.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 327: Didn’t the printer [...] hand to us chaps the balance to drink.
1884		Leicester Chron. 19 July 12/2: I couldn’t ha’ believed it if that doctor chap hadn’t said so.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 3: How do you think a chap that’s taken to the bush [...] can stand his life if he don’t drink?
1892		H. Lawson ‘Jones’s Alley’ in Roderick (1972) 41: Here, you chaps, this is Mrs Aspinall.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 36: We went to one of the shabby-genteel newspaper chaps.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 36: Poor old chap!
1911		Gem 7 Oct. 4: And you’re a St. Jim’s chap now, not an Eaton chap – see?
1920		Film Fun 24 Apr. 1: Ho, what artful young chaps are Ben and Charlie!
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 17: ‘I’m not responsible if those chaps act the goat, am I?’.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Gentlemen, the King!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 179: We suspect many plots against the little chap’s safety.
1932		A. Huxley Brave New World (1955) 47: But, my dear chap, you’re welcome, I assure you.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 48: A little chap with a squint and a bow tie offered his sax for sale.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch 208: It’s all very well for you chaps.
1964		P. Larkin ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ in Whitsun Weddings 31: The hero arrives, the chap / Who’s yellow and keeps the store.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 18: That’s why we asked you invader chaps to help us out.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 150: It’s always useful to know where a chap keeps his Achilles heel.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 35: Appreciate the extra work you chaps did for us this evening.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 22: Remember, chaps, aim just above their heads.

2. a wife.

1838

J. Grant Sketches in London 70: ‘I took the chap,’ – an odd term to apply to one’s wife, – ‘I took the chap on the faith of a good character I got of her from one of her former acquaintances.’.

3. an otherwise unspecified object or animal.

1830		R.B. Peake Haunted Inn I ii: mrs. g.: Has anything awoke you in the night? tom: Oh, yes [...] The little biting chaps.
1844		J.H. Carleton Prairie Logbooks (1983) 24 Aug. 49: He [a wolf] was a savage looking customer [...] a very wolfish sort of a chap.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 206: Ugly looking chaps they [i.e. alligators] is. Big fat ones, with jaws like the schooner’s hatchway.
1915		R.D. Doughty diary 3 May 🌐 One chap, about a 10 inch, landed square on the foremost derrick of the boat next to us. Killed and wounded 16.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 39: These aren’t the little chaps by any chance, are they?
1999		J. Baker Walking With Ghosts (2000) 44: ‘Yes, these little chaps’ – he indicated the pupa of the blowflies.

4. (UK und.) a pimp.

1850

Cork Examiner 6 Feb. 4/3: ‘Many a girl [...] goes out into the streets [...] to get money for their favourite boys by prostiution. If the girl cannot get money [she] will be beaten by her ‘chap’’.

5. a male sweetheart.

1850		Cork Examiner 6 Feb. 4/3: I have seen girls of 15 sleep with ‘their chaps’ in some places.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Jan. 8/3: In her fin’ry she is proud / She is flushed and very ‘loud,’ / And she often gives her ‘chap’ – / Just in joke, of course – a slap.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 39: Chap, a male sweetheart.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

6. a sailor.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

7. constr. with a, oneself, e.g. a chap ought to get drunk once in a while.

1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 57: A chap must have some form of self-protection.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 130: It browns me off the way people are always offering a chap cigarettes and then looking at you as if you were a bit queer when you refuse.

8. (Irish) the hero, the leading man in a film, the good guy.

1961		(con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 61: It was better than the Sunday twopenny rush at the ‘Plaza’ because [...] you didn’t get anyone shouting ‘Look out, mister!’ when the crook came behind the chap.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to the Hill (1986) 10: ‘The chap’ was the hero, Roy.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 122: In every film there was always a ‘chap’, a ‘girl’ and ‘villyun’.
1991		B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 105: As Mr Toner was obviously the ‘chap’, they had no fears for him [...] the chap never gets killed in the pictures.
1995		P. Boland Tales From a City Farmyard 51: When Errol Flynn was Robin Hood, we all made bows and arrows [...] We all wanted to be the ‘chap’ – the leading man – in our plays.

9. (UK Und.) a member of one’s own gang or group; often as one of the chaps.

1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 28: I was charged with fighting with another one of the chaps.
1961		K. Amis letter 8 May in Leader (2000) 591: If you, or any other Radio Times chap, cares to try worming a few more facts out of me.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 34: Two other chaps [...] got up and went through somewhere.
1998		Guardian 5 Sept. 5: And within where we are standing there are, what, 20 of the . . . er, chaps.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 74: All the chaps got a visit cos Duke had our phone numbers in his book.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 76: That twisted respect the chaps bestow upon each other.

10. (Aus.) as the chaps, the police.

1983

R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 23: Chaps (The) Police.

11. the penis.

2018

Sun. Times 16 Sept. 🌐 I spotted some of the other ways more experienced male nudists had of coping with the sun. One particular chap [...] had covered his chap with a white hanky.