nappe.

1. A sheet of water flowing over the edge of a dam or weir.

2. A large mass or sheet of rock displaced over other rocks by geological forces.

3. A single conical sheet on one side of the vertex of a double cone.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• the nappe over a weir
• a flowing nappe
• the underside of the nappe

On the page

The nappe curved away from the weir before falling into broken spray.

Usage notes

Primary category: sensory / image-rich description. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Singular nappe; plural nappes. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Direct full extraction: sheet cross-reference; displaced/thrust rock mass; one of two conical sheets on opposite sides of vertex. Collins English excerpt confirms water sheet over dam/weir, geological and geometric senses. French-English tablecloth result explicitly not treated as an English sense. Individually checked for a distinct image, texture, sound, taste, smell, visual-perception or artistic function. Definitions/examples are original; sensory strength is not assumed to imply emotion. Writing functions: sheetlike water flow, specific geological and geometric sheets.