<B>sap</B> (2), verb, <B>sapped,</B> <B>sapping,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to dig under or wear away the foundation of; undermine. <BR> <I>Ex. The walls of the boathouse had been sapped by the waves.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to weaken; use up. <BR> <I>Ex. The extreme heat sapped our strength. New York's public school system is being harassed and sapped by increasing problems of discipline and delinquency (New York Times). Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer ... (Byron).</I> <DD><B> 3a. </B>to approach or undermine (an enemy's position) by means of protected trenches or tunnels. <DD><B> b. </B>to dig through (ground, an area, or fortification) in constructing trenches or tunnels. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to dig or use protected trenches or tunnels. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a long, deep trench, protected by the earth dug up; trench dug to approach the enemy's position when a besieged place is within range of fire. <BR> <I>Ex. They were now pushing forward saps into No Man's Land, linking them across, and so continually creeping nearer to the enemy and a practicable jumping-off place for attack (H. G. Wells).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the making of trenches or tunnels to approach or mine an enemy position. </DL>
<A NAME="sapajou">
<B>sapajou, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a group of South and Central American monkeys; capuchin. </DL>
<A NAME="sapanwood">
<B>sapanwood, </B>noun. =sappanwood.</DL>
<A NAME="sapchafer">
<B>sap chafer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various beetles that feed on the nectar of flowers or exuding sap of trees. </DL>
<A NAME="sapele">
<B>sapele, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a large mahogany tree of western and central Africa whose very strong close-grained wood is much used for furniture frames. </DL>
<A NAME="sapgreen">
<B>sap green,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a green pigment prepared from the juice of buckthorn berries. <DD><B> 2. </B>the yellowish green color of this pigment. </DL>
<A NAME="saphead">
<B>saphead, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) a silly, stupid person. <BR> <I>Ex. You don't seem to know anything, somehow--perfect saphead (Mark Twain).</I> </DL>
<B>saphena, </B>noun, pl. <B>-nae.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> either of two large superficial veins of the leg, one extending along the inner side of the leg from the foot to the groin, and the other extending along the outer and posterior side from the foot to the knee. </DL>
<A NAME="saphenous">
<B>saphenous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of, designating, or having to do with a saphena. </DL>
<A NAME="saphirdeau">
<B>saphir d'eau,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) water sapphire. </DL>
<A NAME="sapid">
<B>sapid, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>having taste or flavor. <DD><B> 2. </B>having a pleasant taste or flavor; savory; palatable. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) pleasing to the mind or mental taste; agreeable. </DL>
<B>sapience, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> wisdom; insight and judgment such as are gained from much experience or study; sagacity. <BR> <I>Ex. She was timeless, with a beauty that comes with sapience, valiant, artistic, and incredibly vital (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sapiency">
<B>sapiency, </B>noun. =sapience.</DL>
<A NAME="sapiens">
<B>sapiens, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of, resembling, or having to do with modern man or Homo sapiens. <BR> <I>Ex. Beginning with the sapiens races of the late Pleistocene, we find well-developed chins (Beals and Hoijer).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sapient">
<B>sapient, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> having or showing sapience; wise; sage. <BR> <I>Ex. Nor bring ... some doctor ... To shake his sapient head and give the ill he cannot cure a name (Matthew Arnold).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>an early member of the species Homo sapiens; a prehistoric man. <BR> <I>Ex. New finds from the Omo region, and East Rudolf, North Kenya, have put the age of both large and small Australopithecines back to the 2-3 million year mark, while African sapients from the Upper Middle Pleistocene are now known from the same region (Science Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) a wise person. adv. <B>sapiently.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sapiential">
<B>sapiential, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> belonging to or characterized by wisdom. </DL>
<A NAME="sapindaceous">
<B>sapindaceous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> belonging to the soapberry family of plants. </DL>
<A NAME="sapless">
<B>sapless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>without sap; withered; dry. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) without energy or vigor; insipid; trivial. <BR> <I>Ex. Now sapless on the verge of death he stands (John Dryden).</I> noun <B>saplessness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sapling">
<B>sapling, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a young tree, especially a young forest tree with a trunk from one to four inches in diameter. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a young or inexperienced person. </DL>
<A NAME="sapodilla">
<B>sapodilla, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a large evergreen tree of tropical America that yields chicle and bears large, brownish berries that taste like pears; mammee; sapota; naseberry. <DD><B> 2. </B>its fruit. </DL>
<A NAME="sapodillafamily">
<B>sapodilla family,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a group of (chiefly) tropical, dicotyledonous trees and shrubs, with a milky juice. The fruit of certain species, as the sapodilla, star apple, and marmalade tree, is edible; other species are valued for their hard timber; and others yield gutta-percha and gums. </DL>
<A NAME="saponaceous">
<B>saponaceous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of the nature of or like soap; soapy. noun <B>saponaceousness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="saponifiable">
<B>saponifiable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that can be saponified. </DL>
<A NAME="saponification">
<B>saponification, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act or process of saponifying. <BR> <I>Ex. The process for making a Fortisan rayon yarn from an acetate base (called saponification by the chemists) was perfected by Celanese researchers back in 1937 (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the condition of being saponified. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Chemistry.) <DD><B> a. </B>alkaline hydrolysis of any ester to form an alcohol and a salt or acid. <DD><B> b. </B>any hydrolysis. </DL>
<A NAME="saponifier">
<B>saponifier, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an apparatus for the manufacture of glycerin and soap by the decomposition of fats and oils. <DD><B> 2. </B>a substance that produces saponification, such as caustic soda or potash. </DL>
<A NAME="saponify">
<B>saponify, </B>verb, <B>-fied,</B> <B>-fying.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to make (a fat or an oil) into soap by treating with an alkali. <BR> <I>Ex. Considerable preliminary concentration can be effected by saponifying the oil, that is by turning the glycerides of fatty acids which constitute the bulk of the oil into soaps, which are sodium salts of the fatty acids (Science News).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to decompose (an ester of an acid) into an alcohol and a salt of the acid by treating with an alkali. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to become soap. </DL>
<A NAME="saponin">
<B>saponin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of the glucosides obtained from the soapwort, soapbark, soapberry, and many other plants, and forming (in solution) a soapy lather when shaken. The commercial substance, a mixture of saponins, is used to produce foam in beverages, as a detergent, and in fire extinguishers. </DL>
<A NAME="saponine">
<B>saponine, </B>noun. =saponin.</DL>
<A NAME="saponite">
<B>saponite, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a mineral having a soapy feel, occurring in soft, amorphous masses, filling veins and cavities, as in serpentine and traprock. It is a hydrous silicate of aluminum and magnesium. </DL>
<A NAME="sapor">
<B>sapor, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> that quality in a substance which is perceived by the sense of taste, as sweetness, bitterness, or sourness; taste; savor. </DL>
<A NAME="saporific">
<B>saporific, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> producing or imparting taste or flavor. </DL>
<A NAME="saporous">
<B>saporous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having flavor or taste. </DL>
<A NAME="sapota">
<B>sapota, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=sapodilla.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>a general term in tropical America for any one of various different sapotaceous fruits or the trees that these fruits grow on. </DL>
<A NAME="sapotaceous">
<B>sapotaceous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> belonging to the sapodilla family. </DL>
<A NAME="sapote">
<B>sapote, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a tropical American tree with edible fruit; marmalade tree. </DL>
<B>sappanwood, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a wood yielding a red dye, obtained from an East Indian tree of the pea family. <DD><B> 2. </B>the tree itself. Also, <B>sapanwood.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sapper">
<B>sapper</B> (1), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a soldier employed in the construction of trenches, fortifications, and the like. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person employed to detect and disarm mines, bombs, and other explosive devices. <BR> <I>Ex. The sappers had not yet examined the rubble and blasted buildings for ... booby traps (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) a person or thing that saps or undermines. <BR> <I>Ex. The bastions will stand ... however much the sappers of successful integration burrow away (Elspeth Huxley).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sapper">
<B>sapper</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who removes the sap from wood or trees. <BR> <I>Ex. a maple syrup sapper.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a tool for cutting away sapwood. </DL>
<A NAME="sapphic">
<B>Sapphic, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>of or having to do with Sappho, a Greek lyric poetess who lived about 600 B.C. <DD><B> 2. </B>having to do with certain meters, or a four-line stanza form, used by or named after her. <BR> <I>Ex. We send our thanks to you ... in scattered Sapphic lines (Atlantic).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a Sapphic stanza, strophe, or line of verse. </DL>
<A NAME="sapphira">
<B>Sapphira, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a woman who, with her husband Ananias, was struck dead for lying (in the Bible, Acts 5:1-10). </DL>
