Gap
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɡæp/
- Rhymes: -æp
Origin
From Old Norse gap ("chasm"), related to Old Norse gapa ("to gape"); compare gape.
Full definition of gap
Noun
gap
(plural gaps)- An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.a gap in a fence; He made a gap by kicking a weak spot.
- An opening allowing passage or entrance.We can slip through that gap.
- An opening that implies a breach or defect.There is a gap between the roof and the gutter.
- A vacant space or time.I have a gap in my schedule next Tuesday.
- A hiatus.
- 2013-08-03, The machine of a new soul, The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.
- I'm taking a gap.
- A mountain or hill pass.The exploring party went through the high gap in the mountains.
- (Sussex) A sheltered area of coast between two cliffs (mostly restricted to place names).At Birling Gap we can stop and go have a picnic on the beach.
- (baseball) The regions between the outfielders.Jones doubled through the gap.
- (Australia, for a medical or pharmacy item) The shortfall between the amount the medical insurer will pay to the service provider and the scheduled fee for the item.
- 2008, Eileen Willis, Louise Reynolds, Helen Keleher, Understanding the Australian Health Care System, page 5,Under bulk billing the patient does not pay a gap, and the medical practitioner receives 85% of the scheduled fee.
- 2012, May 13, Andrew Benson, Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win, That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints, getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.
- 1995, Robert E. Knoll, Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska Chapter A University on the Defensive 1920-1927, When Charles Bessey suddenly died in 1916 at age seventy, he left a gap that was impossible to fill; and though his protégé. R. J. Pool, was a man of intelligence and character, he did not have Bessey’s authority.
- (AU) (usually written as "the gap") The disparity between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities with regard to life expectancy, education, health, etc.