carp
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɑːp/
ipa: /ˈkɑɹp/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)p
Forms: form: carps
form: carping
form: carped
form: carped
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: carp
form: carp
form: carped
form: carp
form: carpest
form: carped
form: carpedst
form: carps
form: carpeth
form: carped
form: carp
form: carped
form: carp
form: carped
form: carp
form: -
form: carping
form: carped
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English carpen, karpe (“to chat, converse, talk; to chatter, gossip; to ask; to cry out, wail; to find fault, carp; to relate, tell; to recite; to sing”), and then partly:
* from Old Norse karpa (“to boast, brag; to dispute, quarrel”), further etymology unknown; and
* from, or influenced by, Latin carpere, the present active infinitive of carpō (“to harvest, pick, pluck; to criticize, revile, slander, carp at”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kerp- (“to harvest, pluck”).
The noun is derived from the verb. (Middle English carp, karp (“conversation, discourse, talking; spoken or written message or statement; meaning; news; poem; song; story”), from Old Norse karp (“bragging”), did not survive into modern English.)
Senses: examples: text: Here agayne Seruetto carpeth, yͭ God did beare the perſon of an Angel. As thoughe the Prophete did not confirme that whiche Moſes had ſaied: why doeſt thou aſke me of my name?
ref: 1561 May 16 (Gregorian calendar), Ihon Caluin [i.e., John Calvin], “That there is Taught in the Scriptures One Essence of God from the Very Creation, which Essence Conteineth in It Thre Persons”, in [Thomas Norton], transl., The Institution of Christian Religion, […], London: […] Reinolde [i.e., Reginald?] Wolfe & Richarde Harison, →OCLC, 1st book, folio 34, recto:
text: Enuie vvhy carpeſt thou my time is ſpent ſo ill, / And termſt my vvorkes fruites of an idle quill.
ref: c. 1580s (date written), C[hristoper] M[arlowe], “Elegia. 15. Ad inuidos, qaod fama poetarum sit perennis.”, in Ouids Elegies: Three Bookes. […], Middlebourgh [i.e., London: […] Thomas Cotes?], published c. 1640, →OCLC, signature [B6], verso:
text: [W]ith your good countenance protect against the malice of euill mouthes, vvhich are alvvaies vvide open to carpe at and miſconstrue my ſimple meaning.
ref: 1592 January 6 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “To the Right Worthy and Noble Knight Sir Walter Raleigh, […]”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, published 1595, →OCLC, signature A2, recto:
text: [I]f vve ſhould never cenſure vvithout great Reaſon or neceſſity, hovv ſeldom ſhould vve do it? […] [D]o vve not eagerly ſearch after, and greedily embrace all occaſions to do it? Is it not a pleaſant entertainment to us, to be carping and cavelling at any Body vve meet, at any thing vve ſee done?
ref: a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “The Eighth Sermon. S. Matth[ew] 7. 1.”, in Several Sermons against Evil-Speaking, London: […] Brabazon Aylmer, […], published 1678, →OCLC, pages 58–59:
text: My vvorthy friend, ne'er grudge an' carp, / Tho' Fortune uſe you hard an' ſharp; / Come, kittle up your moorland harp / VVi' gleeſome touch!
ref: 1785 April 21 (date written), Robert Burns, “To the Same [Epistle to J[ohn] L[aprai]k, an Old Scottish Bard]”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 95:
text: [Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of] Clarendon's touch, where in his memoirs he speaks of Falkland, is simpler than in the History. But we will not carp at this great writer and faithful friend.
ref: 1879, Matthew Arnold, “Falkland”, in Mixed Essays, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 207:
glosses: To criticize or complain about a fault, especially for frivolous or petty reasons; to cavil.
glosses: To speak, to talk; also, to talk about a subject in speech or writing.
examples: text: And some of them barke, / Clatter and carpe / Of that heresy arte / Called Wicleuista, / The deuelysshe dogmatista; […]
ref: 1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 332, lines 548–552:
text: And therwithall came curiouſneſſe and carped out of frame. / The audience laught to heare the ſtrife as they beheld the ſame.
ref: 1557 August 10 (Gregorian calendar), [Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; Thomas Wyatt; et al.], “A Praise of Maistresse R.”, in Songes and Sonettes, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC, folio 84, verso:
text: Psha! thou carpest and carpest, and yet tell'st nought; in a word, What say'st thou to him?
ref: 1825, T[homas] Doubleday, Babington. A Tragedy, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene iii, page 54:
synonyms: word: blabber
word: prate
word: babble
word: bat the breeze
word: blab
word: blabber
word: blather
word: carp
word: chat
word: chatter
word: chew the fat
word: chew the rag
word: chinwag
word: chit-chat
word: chunner
word: clack
word: claver
word: clepe
word: drivel
word: jabber
word: gabble
word: gibber
word: go on
word: maunder
word: natter
word: palaver
word: piffle
word: prate
word: prattle
word: rabbit
word: rabbit on
word: ramble
word: shoot the breeze
word: shoot the bull
word: shoot the shit
word: smatter
word: tattle
word: twaddle
word: waffle
word: wibble
word: witter
word: yabber
word: yack
word: yatter
word: yap
glosses: To talk much but to little purpose; to chatter, to prattle.
examples: text: Hys hart is to hy to haue any hap; / But for in his gamut carp that he can, / Lo, Jak wold be a jentylman!
ref: a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Against a Comely Coystrowne, that Curyowsly Chawntyd, and Curryshly Cowntred, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 15, lines 12–14:
text: Then aye he harped, and aye he carped, / Till a' the Lordlings footed the floor; / But an' the music was sae sweet, / The groom had nae mind o' the stable door.
ref: 1802, “The Lochmaben Harper”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: […], volume I, Kelso, Roxburghshire: […] James Ballantyne, for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […]; and sold by Manners and Miller, and A[rchibald] Constable, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Historical Ballads), page 67:
glosses: Of a bird: to sing; of a person (such as a minstrel): to sing or recite.
glosses: To say or tell (something).
examples: text: Albeit I doe knovve they [the speeches] vvill lie open to the cenſure of the youth of our time, vvho for the moſt part, are ſo over-gulled vvith ſelf-liking, that they are more then giddy in admiring themſelves, and carping vvhatſoever hath beene done or ſaide heeretofore, Nevertheleſſe I hope that all are not of one humour, and doubt not, but that there is diverſitie of taſtes, as vvas among Horaces gueſts; […]
ref: 1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], “Grave Speeches, and Wittie Apothegmes of Woorthie Personages of This Realme in Former Times”, in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 177:
text: [W]hen I ſpoke, / My honeſt homely vvords vvere carp'd, and cenſur'd, / For vvant of Courtly ſtile: […]
ref: 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 104:
synonyms: reprehend
reprove
take exception
glosses: To find fault with (someone or something); to censure, to criticize.
Derived terms: word: carper
word: carping