clap

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
clap1

▶verb (claps, clapping, clapped)

• 1 strike the palms of (one's hands) together repeatedly, especially to applaud.

  ■ (of a bird) flap (its wings) audibly.

• 2 slap encouragingly on the back.

• 3 place (a hand) briefly over one's face as a gesture of dismay or regret.

• 4 (clap something on) abruptly impose a restrictive or punitive measure on.

▶noun

• 1 an act of clapping.

• 2 an explosive sound, especially of thunder.

– phrases
clap someone in jail (or irons) put someone in prison (or in chains).

– origin OE clappan ‘throb, beat’, of imitative origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
clap2

▶noun informal a venereal disease, especially gonorrhoea.

– origin C16: from OFr. clapoir ‘venereal bubo’.