Lapped by ...

[Johnyxxx]

Hello,


I would like to ask somebody if the word lapped in the text below means surrounded.


"I went to the balcony. She lay still, as the living do not lie, and her white hair was blackening, lapped by a congealing stream." (the head was surrounded by a stream of congealing blood)


Aleister Crowley, The Dream Circean, 1908


Thank you very much.

 

[Tarheel]

I think he means that her hair was soaked with blood. So no, not "surrounded".

 

[bhaisahab]

Her hair has been lapped (touched or hit gently) by a stream of blood. In the same way that a stream or river laps against its banks, or a calm sea might lap against the shore.

 

[BobK]

:up: There was a lot of blood. It's nothing to do with lapped in the 'going round' sense - as in 'Mo Farah lapped several of the other competitors'.

b

 

[Tarheel]

Can we stop talking about exsanguination now?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Bloody awful, isn't it?