Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a go, an attempt; thus a bet.

1818		implied in have a slap (at)
1842		‘Sally May’ Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 7: Oh, my Roger now is standing, / For a slap at Sally May.
1885		‘’Arry on ’appiness’ Punch 3 Jan. 4/1: Give me them, and one slap at that Bill, — they’re the right New Year Gifts to ’Arry.
1944		C.S. Montanye ‘Publicity for the Corpse’ in Thrilling Detective Dec. 🌐 He matched Rico for a slap at the prevailing lightweight champ.

2. (also schlap, shlap, slop) make-up, esp. in theatre use; also as v., slap up, to apply make-up [one SE slaps it on].

1833		‘A Chaunt by Slapped-up Kate & Dubber Daff’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 47: Her ogles are sharp as a swoddy’s rum dagger / Her cheeks too are blooming with slap.
1855		Yokel’s Preceptor 9: She is a good-looking piece when dressed, and got the slap on.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 126/2: We don’t make up so heavy for the clown [...] so we’ve only just got to wipe off the ‘slop’.
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone III 81: Makes up uncommonly well at night; doesn’t spare the ‘slap’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890		Sporting Times 15 Mar. 2/1: Even the slap on her chivvy had the same lilac tinge.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 226/1: Slap (Theatrical). Paint used in creating a stage complexion. Probably from its being liberally and literally slapped on.
1932		T. Croft Cloven Hoof 65: ‘Slap’: cosmetics.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 110: She was all dolled up, her face thick with slap.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 71: She was really much better looking [...] now that she had washed off all her shlap.
1973		(con. 1927–30) E. Williams Emlyn 111: A lively Cockney gadabout. ‘I’m thirty-five, ducks, but wi’ slap on me face and a spot of surprise pink in the floats I can get away wi’ twenty’.
1979		Maledicta III:2 236: Queen can also be a suffix with or without derogatory overtones: [...] UK slap queen (where slap = makeup, US war paint, Max Fuckter, etc.).
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 135: I got into a clean pair of jeans and a tee-shirt and slapped myself up to the eyeballs.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 126: On her face a cake of slap.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 175: Weird–looking aliens – schlap and ruffled shirts.
1999		Guardian G2 5 July 8: Afternoons she spent in her bedroom ‘putting on slap and perfecting the overcoat drill’.
2006		Indep. Rev. 10 Feb. 22: Kendall, with the help of plenty of slap and attitude [...] got a job as a chorus girl.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 287: ‘Out on the street with no slap and her hair in a scrunchie’.
2019		Twitter 28 Oct. 🌐 Sometimes no matter how poo we feel, we just need a bit of slap and a few kind words!
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 103: [I]t might be wise to smear on a pogi bit of slap.

3. an attack on someone.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jun. 14/2: This comes of teaching a man to thump. It is rumoured Lees now wants to have a slap – with the gloves, of course – at Professor Miller.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 14/3: The shearers all egged Bradshaw on to have a slap at the boss, and in due course a ring was formed and the squatter and shearer stripped to the waist.
1921		Wodehouse Indiscretions of Archie Ch. vi: ‘If I’d known,’ he said, regretfully, ‘that this guy was going to turn out a ruddy Englishman, I’d have taken a slap at him with m’stick and chanced it!’.
1983		R. Price Breaks 269: As soon as I said the words though, it seemed slight and jive. It also sounded like a slap at Jack.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 94: Bad luck Warren got a bit of a slap, but [...] that’s what happens when you back-door blokes.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 47: They are now exactly fifteen seconds from a slap.
2012		C. Black ‘Topless Vampire Bitches’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] If she was really gonna give him a slap, I figured she would have to join the queue.

4. (Irish) a large amount, a quantity.

1995

S. Connaughton Border Diary n.p.: Don boy’s no daw. He sells Bingo tickets and no one’ll go by him without buying. He’s ropes of money. Slaps of it [BS].