tap
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tæp/
ipa: [tʰæp]
ipa: /tɐːp/
rhymes: -æp
Forms: form: taps
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English tappen, teppen (“to give (something) a knock or tap; to hit (something) lightly, pat, tap”), either:
* imitative of the making of a tapping sound; or
* from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”) (modern French taper), from Frankish *tappōn, *dabbōn (“to strike”), or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to rap, strike, tap”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dab- (“to strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰebʰ- (“to beat, strike; to stun; to be speechless”). Doublet of dab.
Verb sense 1.1.1 (“to arrest (someone)”) and sense 1.6 (“to choose or designate (someone) for a duty, etc.”) allude to a police officer or other person tapping someone on their shoulder to catch their attention or to select them.
The noun is derived from Middle English tap, tappe (“light blow or hit”), and then either:
* from Middle English tappen (verb) (see above); or
* from Old French tape (“light slap or touch, pat”) (modern French tape), from tapper, taper (verb) (see above).
Cognates
* German tappen (“to fumble; to grope”)
* Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”)
Senses: examples: text: When Steve felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around.
text: And much greater is the wrong that rewardeth euill for good, than that which requireth tip for tap: […]
ref: 1573, George Gascoigne, “A Discourse of the Adventures Passed by Master F. I.”, in A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres Bounde up in One Small Poesie. […], London: […] [Henry Bynneman and Henry Middleton for] Richarde Smith, →OCLC, page 266:
text: [T]his is the right fencing grace, my Lord, tap for tap, and ſo part faire.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature C3, verso:
text: [W]hen a man's ſore beaten a both ſides already,
 Then the leaſt tap in jeſt goes to the guts on him; […]
ref: c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 80, column 2:
text: [U]pon my word to Handle their fans, each of them shakes her fan at me with a smile, then gives her right-hand woman a tap upon the shoulder, then presses her lips with the extremity of her fan, then lets her arms fall in an easy motion, and stands in readiness to receive the next word of command.
ref: 1711 July 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 102; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 58:
text: [H]e ſunk into a kind of doze, and Emily continued to vvatch and vveep beſide him, till a gentle tap at the chamber-door rouſed her.
ref: 1794 May 8, Ann Radcliffe, chapter VII, in The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance; […], volume I, Dublin: […] Hillary and Barlow, for Messrs. P. Wogan, W. Jones, and H. Colbert, →OCLC, page 111:
text: [T]he water went tap, tap, tap against the bends, with a most melancholy sound.
ref: 1840, [Frederick] Marryat, “‘Recollect,’ Says the Fellow, ‘You Have Thrown Overboard a Black Tom Cat!’”, in Poor Jack. […], London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 162:
text: About eight minutes had been allowed for this tub-diet, and every one of them was by this time empty. The convicts were called off by the tap of a drum, […]
ref: 1862, George Augustus Sala, “Down among the Bad Men”, in The Seven Sons of Mammon: […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 194:
text: I was undressing in my own room, when, with a premonitory tap at the door, he entered, and at once began to speak:— ¶ "To-morrow I want you to bring me, before night, a set of post-mortem knives."
ref: 1897, Bram Stoker, “Dr. Seward’s Diary—continued”, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XIII, page 180:
glosses: A light blow or strike with a clear sound; a gentle rap; a pat; also, the sound made by such a blow or strike.
examples: text: For to the first floor his duties never took him, at this period, nor to the second, once he had made his bed, and swept clean his little room, which he did every morning the first thing, before coming down, on an empty stomach. Whereas Erskine never did a tap on the ground floor, but all his duties were on the first floor.
ref: 1953, Samuel Beckett, chapter II, in Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC, page 118:
text: That put an end to work. They've hardly done a tap since. By now we should have half the season's copra stacked and ready for shipping. But you saw the plantation. Nothing done at all.
ref: 1964, Jim Blair, The Secret of the Reef, London: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC, page 13:
text: Bone idle, Charlie was, he had never done a tap in the house, always 'busy' whenever she asked him to do anything.
ref: 2021, Karen Woods, Tracks, Manchester: HarperNorth, →ISBN, page 82:
glosses: The smallest amount of work; a stroke of work.
raw_tags: in the negative
topics: dance
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: One of the metal pieces attached to the sole of a tap dancer's shoe at the toe and heel to cause a tapping sound.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A shot fired from a firearm.
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
coordinate_terms: click
glosses: An act of touching a button, icon, or specific location on the touch screen of an electronic device such as a mobile phone to invoke a function.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
synonyms: flap
glosses: A single muscle contraction in vocal organs causing a consonant sound; also, the sound so made.
examples: text: She had a good figure, was twenty-one, five-feet-five, hair probably brown (dyed blond), brown cloth coat, rabbit-skin collar, cotton print dress, brown calf shoes (heel taps a little run over), scuff on the right toe.
ref: 1954 June 10, John Steinbeck, “Enter Suzy”, in Sweet Thursday, 1st British edition, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 33:
synonyms: heeltap
glosses: A piece of leather or other material fastened upon the bottom of an item of footwear when repairing the heel or sole; also (England, dialectal) the sole of an item of footwear.
examples: text: Now, until you get to wearing block shoes, the same sandals do for everything except tap, and the world doesn't come to an end if you just wear your tunic knickers and a shirt for tap; but when we could get the stuff there was all that changing into rompers, and we'd special satin sandals for ballet. It was change, change, all the time.
ref: 1944, Noel Streatfeild, “Cousins”, in Curtain Up (Pennant Books), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Sons, published 1964, →OCLC, page 97:
text: As successful commercially as it was critically, Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk established Savion Glover as the new tap superstar.
ref: 2000, Ian Driver, “Sight and Sound: Tap Dancing”, in A Century of Dance, London: Hamlyn, →ISBN, page 116, column 1:
text: I had one advantage: I can keep time pretty well, especially to jazz, which effectively is all tap is. I can beat out a rhythm to any tune.
ref: 2009 February 21, Patrick Kidd, “Out of the ordinary: Tap dancing”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022:
text: In this iconic staircase number [The Little Colonel], Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tutors Shirley Temple in the art of tap.
ref: 2014 March 25, Samantha Grossman, “The 10 Best Tap Dance Scenes in Film”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Dec 2023:
topics: dance
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Ellipsis of tap dance.
Synonyms: word: clap
word: knock
word: pat
word: ping
word: plip
word: plonk
word: plop
word: rap
word: slam
word: slap
word: smack
word: spank
word: tap
Hypernyms: word: abrupt sound
Hyponyms: word: bang
word: kerpow
word: pow
word: wham
word: clump
word: flump
word: kerplunk
word: plunk
word: thud
word: thump
Derived terms: word: double tap
word: elbow tap
word: hypertap
word: keytap
word: lovetap
word: midtap
word: mistap
word: multitap
word: nettle-tap
word: off tap
word: one-tap
word: tap of work
word: tap pants
word: tappet
word: tappigraphy
word: tappy
english: military signal
translation: military signal
word: taps
word: taptastic
word: technical tap
word: three-tap
word: tippy-tap
word: two-tap
Related terms: word: beep
word: snap