V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

IMAP
       Internet Message Access Protocol (RFC 2060)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Internet Message Access Protocol
IMAP

    (IMAP) A protocol allowing a client
   to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a
   server.  It permits manipulation of remote message folders
   (mailboxes), in a way that is functionally equivalent to
   local mailboxes.

   IMAP includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming
   mailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removing
   messages; searching; and selective fetching of message
   attributes, texts, and portions thereof.  It does not specify
   a means of posting mail; this function is handled by a mail
   transfer protocol such as SMTP.

   See RFC 2060, RFC 2061, and others.

   Compare: POP.

   (1999-03-14)