Nap. n.s. [hnœppan, Saxon, to sleep.]

1. Slumber; a short sleep.

   Mopsa sat swallowing of sleep with open mouth making such a noise, as no body could lay the stealing of a nap to her charge. Sidney, b. ii.

               Let your bounty
   Take a nap, and I will awake it anon. Shakespeare.

   The sun had long since in the lap
   Of Thetis, taken out his nap. Hudibras, p. ii.

   So long as I'm at the forge you are still taking your nap. L'Estrange, Fab.

2. [hnoppa, Saxon.] Down; villous substance.

   Amongst those leaves she made a butterfly
   With excellent device and wondrous flight;
   The velvet nap, which on his wings doth lie,
   The silken down, with which his back is dight. Spenser.

   Jack Cade the clothier, means to dress the Commonwealth, and set a new nap upon it. Shakes.

   Plants, though they have no prickles, have a kind of downy or velvet rind upon their leaves; which down or nap cometh of a subtil spirit, in a soft or fat substance. Bacon.

   Ah! where must needy poet seek for aid
   When dust and rain at once his coat invade;
   His only coat! where dust confus'd with rain
   Roughens the nap, and leaves a mingled stain. Swift.