sb. Sc. and north. Forms: 6 quha(i)p, 7 whoup, 7–9 whap, 8–9 whaap, 8– whaup, (8 whape, wap, 9 whawp, quhaup). [Perhaps for *whalp and allied to OE. huilpe (Seafarer 21), = early WS. *hwielpe:—*χwalpjon-, f. χwalp-: χwelp- a stem imitative of the bird’s cry, and represented also in LG. regenwilp, -wölp sandpiper, WFris. (greate) wylp curlew (reen-, wetterwylp, lytse wylp Numenius phœopus), Du. wulp, wilp curlew. (WFris. wettergulp, LG. regengilp show a variant with g.) The dial. name curlew-help may be for *curlew-whelp, and so attest the former existence of a variant *whelp; but cf. the form hilpe (1530 in Ancestor, XI. 179).] The larger curlew, Numenius arquata.
Also † great whaup, stock whaup (see STOCK sb.1 64).
1538. Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871), II. 92. A quhap that is greitt xij d. Ibid. (1553), 185. The best quhaip viij d.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 39. Quhilk gart the quhapis for fleyitnes fle far fra hame.
1683. Alex. Garden, in Macfarlane’s Geogr. Collect. (S.H.S.), II. 133. The Whap also uses to be eaten.
1733. T. Gifford, Zetland Isl. (1786), 26. Wild fowl … such as plovers, whapes.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scot., V. 188. The wild land fowls are plovers, pigeons, curlews, (commonly called whaap).
1839. T. T. Stoddart, Songs & P., 18.
| Or amang the hills uncheery | |
| Whar the mirk mere slumbers lorn, | |
| An’ his dirges lang and dreary | |
| Pipes the grey whaup to the morn. |
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxxix. Not so much as a whaup came near me on that great, wide, dappled hill.
