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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Sap \Sap\, n. [AS. saep; akin to OHG. saf, G. saft, Icel. safi;
of uncertain origin; possibly akin to L. sapere to taste, to
be wise, sapa must or new wine boiled thick. Cf. {Sapid},
{Sapient}.]
1. The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending
and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to
nutrition.
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Note: The ascending is the crude sap, the assimilation of
which takes place in the leaves, when it becomes the
elaborated sap suited to the growth of the plant.
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2. The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
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3. A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang]
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{Sap ball} (Bot.), any large fungus of the genus Polyporus.
See {Polyporus}.

{Sap green}, a dull light green pigment prepared from the
juice of the ripe berries of the {Rhamnus catharticus}, or
buckthorn. It is used especially by water-color artists.


{Sap rot}, the dry rot. See under {Dry}.

{Sap sucker} (Zool.), any one of several species of small
American woodpeckers of the genus {Sphyrapicus},
especially the yellow-bellied woodpecker ({Sphyrapicus
varius}) of the Eastern United States. They are so named
because they puncture the bark of trees and feed upon the
sap. The name is loosely applied to other woodpeckers.

{Sap tube} (Bot.), a vessel that conveys sap.
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Sap \Sap\, v. i.
To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute
saps. --W. P. Craighill.
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Both assaults are carried on by sapping. --Tatler.
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Sap \Sap\, n. (Mil.)
A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel
toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by
digging under cover of gabions, etc.
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{Sap fagot} (Mil.), a fascine about three feet long, used in
sapping, to close the crevices between the gabions before
the parapet is made.

{Sap roller} (Mil.), a large gabion, six or seven feet long,
filled with fascines, which the sapper sometimes rolls
along before him for protection from the fire of an enemy.
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Sap \Sap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sapped}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Sapping}.] [F. saper (cf. Sp. zapar, It. zapare), fr. sape a
sort of scythe, LL. sappa a sort of mattock.]
1. To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to
undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
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Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods,
Their houses fell upon their household gods.
--Dryden.
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2. (Mil.) To pierce with saps.
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3. To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
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Ring out the grief that saps the mind. --Tennyson.
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