pap
pap Lexical Profile
pap Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Worthless, trivial, or oversimplified reading matter, entertainment, or ideas lacking intellectual substance.
"Critics dismissed the summer blockbuster as mindless pap designed purely to sell merchandise."
South African A traditional porridge or polenta-like staple dish made from ground maize meal, cooked to a soft or stiff consistency.
"At the weekend barbecue, the grilled sausages were served alongside a generous portion of maize pap and spicy tomato relish."
Bland, soft, or semi-liquid food, such as mash or porridge, considered suitable for babies or invalids.
"The recovering patient was restricted to a diet of warm broth and bland pap for several days."
British A freelance photographer who pursues celebrities to take candid photographs for newspapers and magazines (informal shortening of paparazzo).
"A crowd of paps waited outside the London restaurant hoping to catch a glimpse of the actors."
A nipple or teat of a breast, or a rounded conical hilltop resembling one (archaic or dialectal).
"The hikers used the twin rounded paps of the distant mountain range as landmarks along the trail."
• verb
British To take candid, often intrusive photographs of a celebrity for publication in tabloid newspapers or magazines (informal).
"The singer wore sunglasses and a cap to avoid being papped while leaving the airport."
To feed an infant with soft, semi-liquid food or mash (archaic or rare).
"The nursemaid gently papped the infant with a spoonful of warm milk and bread."
• Rhymes for pap
Word Origin & Etymology
In its sense of soft food or a nipple, the word comes from Middle English via Low German or Dutch 'pap', of imitative origin representing the sound made by an infant feeding. The modern British informal sense meaning a freelance celebrity photographer is a late 20th-century clipping of 'paparazzo'.