reps

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rep.

   She finished three sets of twelve reps on the bench press.

   Customer service reps answered more than a thousand calls during the outage.

   Note

   One spelling stands for several clipped words, and the setting decides which. At the gym, reps are repetitions of an exercise (three sets of twelve reps); in business they are representatives (sales reps, customer service reps). The same spelling is also the verb for representing or lifting, as in she reps three brands.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of rep.

   She reps three clothing brands at trade shows across the Midwest.

   At sixty, Dad still reps the same weight he lifted in college.

   Note

   In the representing sense it works with or without an object: she reps for a shoe company, or she reps the company itself. That use is informal, at home in talk more than in formal writing. In the gym sense the object is the weight lifted, as when someone reps a lighter dumbbell on a bad day.

3. 3
   nounarchaicuncountable

   A fabric woven with a ribbed surface; the same material as rep.

   The parlor chairs were upholstered in crimson reps that had faded at the arms.

   Heavy reps hung at the windows to keep out the winter drafts.

   Note

   English got this name back from French: reps comes from French reps, which goes back ultimately to English ribs, a fitting origin for a cloth known by its ridges. It is rare now, having given way to rep, and suits period description, as in parlor chairs covered in faded reps. Though it ends in -s, it names one material and takes a singular verb.

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