Gap

To stand by during the comission of a crime. "While you're clipping (robbing) the joint, I'll gap and stall (delay) any beef (outcry)."

- american underworld dictionary - 1950

In baseball parlance, this is the space between the centerfielder and the two other outfielders. That is, the uncovered area of the field between the three outfielders.

Every baseball team, when it is in the field, therefore has two large "gaps" in the outfield. A batted ball that falls in this area and rolls to the fence is said to be "in the gap." Usually results in a baserunner reaching 2nd or 3rd base.

The gaps in the infield are referred to as "holes."

Major League baseball, in it's infinite quest to ruin the game and commercialize everything, has sold a great deal of advertising to the Gap corporation. In many stadia there are large blue signs, saying simply GAP, placed on the outfield walls in the area generally thought of as the outfield gaps.

I guess this is supposed to be cute or ironic. Try insipid or really dumb. Like the DH and interleague play it is baseball trying to be cute, and failing.

The skateboarding term:
Distance or obstacle jumped, usually of great difficulty (ex. Leap of Faith, jumping over 13 stairs, jumping from one roof of a building to another). Scores big points in competitions.

While it seems that the majority if not the entire content of this GAP node are subjective, here is a purely factual node about the company that I work for.

Formed by Don and Doris Fisher in 1969, GAP started as a single store. Located in San Francisco and employing a modest number of workers, the store sold Levi's jeans, white t-shirts, and khaki shorts. The store was quickly recognized at a location to purchase Levi's at a discounted price. In 1976, GAP goes public, offering 1.2 million shares of stock on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges. Don and Doris Fisher are made into instant multi-millionaires.

In 1983, GAP bought the Banana Republic chain, and incorporated it into GAP, Inc. At this time, the current president of GAP, Inc. was named president of the GAP division, Millard Drexler. In 1986, GAP opens it's first GAP Kids store, and also becomes an international force, as it opens its first store outside of the United States.

Other milestones in the history of the company include 1994, when GAP, Inc. released it's newest brand, Old Navy. In just four years of existence, Old Navy achieves its one billion annual revenue in 1997. Also in 1997, GAP, Inc. introduces it's online medium at gap.com.

Today, GAP, Inc operates in six countries, including the United States, France, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and Canada. GAP, Inc's GAP division is listed second in the United States in annual revenue, behind Abercrombie & Fitch.

GAP is a free software system for doing computational discrete algebra, written by the mathematics department at the Crest School of Mathematics and Statistics, St. Andrews, Scotland.

GAP is similar to software like Mathematica and Matlab in that it allows symbolic computation, but while the latter also provide many numerical capabilities and include powerful visualization tools, GAP purely focuses on the needs of discrete mathematicians and is stocked with features and concepts from the highly theoretical and purely discrete world of group theory and higher algebra.

The shopping chain known as The Gap is mentioned frequently in slightly skeptical terms by the main character of Microserfs (a novel by Douglas Coupland).

The phrase is rescued from dull shop-ness in a sequence of books by Stephen R. Donaldson. The series consists of five science fiction novels that tell the story of three main characters as they become involved in political power-plays. Each of the three main characters plays different roles in the melodramatic trio of hero, villain and victim. As the books progress, and as with many Donaldson books, it is the character's flaws rather than their qualities that often determine the paths they follow.

In my opinion, these are the finest books Donaldson has written, surpassing even the masterful Thomas Covenant trilogies. On the surface they appear to be cliched genre pieces but the author adds depth, dark humour and brilliant twists to what could easily have become a science fiction relation of Terry Brooks's Shannara books (ie. very poor, thoughtless rubbish).

'The Gap' that the series is named for concerns FTL space travel technology. A Gap Drive is an engine that can avoid normal space by travelling through the Gap. This is a potentially lethal method of travel that has unpredictable psychological effects on a small minority of people. To control the Gap sickness of Morn Hyland, her captor, Angus Thermopyle gives her an illegal zone implant that also allows him to control her in some fairly sickening ways.

The setup for the sequence of books is that Morn is rescued by Nick Succorso. The desire that the two men have for her and the capabilities given to her by the zone implant give Morn a fragile power over them and it is this that drives the narrative forward.

1. A space in between two of the same objects, where part of a chain or object is missing, or where certain activities, processes, or events are lacking. A period of time characterized by a lack of activity, in between two events or within a continuous process.
2. In molecular biology or genetics, a gap is a spot on a strand of DNA or RNA where a nucleotide or a segment of nucleotides is missing.

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From the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.

Gap (?), n. [OE. gap; cf. Icel. gap an empty space, Sw. gap mouth, breach, abyss, Dan. gab mouth, opening, AS. geap expanse; as adj., wide, spacious. See Gape.]

An opening in anything made by breaking or parting; as, a gap in a fence; an opening for a passage or entrance; an opening which implies a breach or defect; a vacant space or time; a hiatus; a mountain pass.

Miseries ensued by the opening of that gap.
Knolles.

It would make a great gap in your own honor.
Shak.

Gap lathe (Mach.), a turning lathe with a deep notch in the bed to admit of turning a short object of large diameter. --
To stand in the gap, to expose one's self for the protection of something; to make defense against any assailing danger; to take the place of a fallen defender or supporter. --
To stop a gap, to secure a weak point; to repair a defect.

 

© Webster 1913

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Gap, v. t.

1.

To notch, as a sword or knife.

2.

To make an opening in; to breach.

Their masses are gapp'd with our grape.
Tennyson.

 

© Webster 1913

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Gap, n. (Aëronautics)

The vertical distance between two superposed surfaces, esp. in a biplane.

 

© Webster 1913