Part 50

3. A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang]

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 (Zoöl.), any one of several species of small American woodpeckers of the genus Sphyrapicus, especially the yellow-bellied woodpecker (S. 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.

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.

Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods.

Dryden.

2. (Mil.) To pierce with saps.

3. To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind.

Tennyson.

Sap (?), v. i. To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. W. P. Craighill.

Both assaults are carried on by sapping.

Tatler.

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.

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.

Sap`a*dil"lo (?), n. See Sapodila.

Sap"a*jo (?), n. (Zoöl.) The sapajou.

Sap"a*jou (?), n. [F. sapajou, sajou, Braz. sajuassu.] (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of South American monkeys of the genus Cebus, having long and prehensile tails. Some of the species are called also capuchins. The bonnet sapajou (C. subcristatus), the golden-handed sapajou (C. chrysopus), and the white-throated sapajou (C. hypoleucus) are well known species. See Capuchin.

Sa*pan" wood (?). [Malay sapang.] (Bot.) A dyewood yielded by Cæsalpinia Sappan, a thorny leguminous tree of Southern Asia and the neighboring islands. It is the original Brazil wood. [Written also sappan wood.]

Sap"ful (?), a. Abounding in sap; sappy.

Sap"head` (?), n. A weak-minded, stupid fellow; a milksop.

Sa*phe"nous (?), a. [Gr. &?; manifest.] (Anat.) (a) Manifest; -- applied to the two principal superficial veins of the lower limb of man. (b) Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the saphenous veins; as, the saphenous nerves; the saphenous opening, an opening in the broad fascia of the thigh through which the internal saphenous vein passes.

Sap"id (?), a. [L. sapidus, fr. sapere to taste: cf. F. sapide. See Sapient, Savor.] Having the power of affecting the organs of taste; possessing savor, or flavor.

Camels, to make the water sapid, do raise the mud with their feet.

Sir T. Browne.

Sa*pid"i*ty (?), n. [Cf. F. sapidité.] The quality or state of being sapid; taste; savor; savoriness.

Whether one kind of sapidity is more effective than another.

M. S. Lamson.

Sap"id*ness, n. Quality of being sapid; sapidity.