lappet noun. ['lapɪt] LME.
[from LAP noun¹ + -ET¹.]
1. A lobe of the ear, liver, lung, etc. LME.
b. A fold or pendent piece of flesh, skin, membrane, etc., esp. on some animals. E17.

2. A loose or overlapping part of a garment; a flap, a fold; a lapel. L16.
■ Swift Lifting up the lappet of his coat.

3. An attached or hanging part of an item of headgear; spec. (now rare) a streamer attached to a woman's head-dress. Also, in clerical dress, = BAND noun² 2b. E17.
■ E. A. Parkes A sealskin cap with ear lappets.

4. gen. A loose hanging part of anything. L17.
■ S. T. Warner A lappet of hair dangles..over her left eye.

5. In full lappet-moth. Any of several mostly brown velvety lasiocampid moths whose caterpillars have lappets on their sides; spec. a common Eurasian moth, Gastropacha quercifolia. E19.

6. Weaving.
a. A figure woven on cloth by means of needles placed in a sliding frame; cloth bearing such figures. M19.
b. A mechanism for producing such figures. L19.

7. Art. A repeated motif used as a decorative border on Chinese ceramics etc. E20.

Comb.:
lappet moth: see sense 5 above; lappet-weaving a method of weaving in which figures are produced on the surface of cloth by means of needles placed in a sliding frame.

■ lappeted adjective (of a person) wearing lappets; (of a head-dress) provided with lappets: L18.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲