slaps

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of slap.

   The comedy duo traded mock slaps to the delight of the audience.

   A flurry of slaps echoed across the schoolyard before a teacher intervened.

   Note

   The plural follows the countable meanings of slap: blows, sharp percussive sounds, the notes of slap bass, and the eye-catching stickers of street art. The slang word for makeup is uncountable, so it has no plural, and slaps never means cosmetics. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, as in she slaps the dough, so context decides whether you are counting blows or describing an action.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of slap.

   Whenever the dough sticks, she slaps it firmly against the counter.

   The branch slaps the window each time the wind picks up.

   Note

   Several lively uses ride on this form beyond the literal blow. In slang it means "to be excellent," especially of music, and it takes no object: this track slaps. Informally and figuratively, it means to impose a penalty on someone, as when a court slaps a fine on a firm. It can also mean to put something down carelessly, as when he slaps a sticker on the door.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A two-player reaction game in which opponents try to slap each other's hands before they are pulled out of reach.

   Like a duel of reflexes, where the slower hand always pays the price.

   The cousins challenged each other to a game of slaps after dinner.

   At recess the kids crowded around to watch a tense match of slaps.

   Note

   The -s here belongs to the name of the game rather than marking a plural. The word is uncountable, so it is measured out in rounds, as in a game of slaps or a tense match of slaps. Each strike within play is still just a slap, and several of them are slaps in the ordinary plural.

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