tape
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /teɪ̯p/
ipa: [tʰeɪ̯p]
rhymes: -eɪp
Forms: form: tapes
Etymology: From Middle English tape, tappe, from Old English tæppa, tæppe (“ribbon, tape”); further origin unclear. Probably akin to Old Frisian tapia (“to pull, rip, tear”), Middle Low German tappen, tāpen (“to grab, pull, rip, tear, snatch”), Middle High German zāfen, zāven (“to pull, tear”).
Senses: examples: text: Hand me some tape. I need to fix a tear in this paper.
text: I sealed up the box with clear shipping tape.
glosses: Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.
examples: text: We made some decorative flowers out of the tape we bought.
glosses: Thin and flat paper, plastic or similar flexible material, usually produced in the form of a roll.
examples: text: Jones broke the tape in 47.77 seconds, a new world record.
glosses: Finishing tape, stretched across a track to mark the end of a race.
examples: text: Did you get that on tape?
text: So we went around the corner, looked in the garbage, and, boom, there's about 16 of the tapes he didn't like!
ref: 1993, Vibe, volume 1, number 2:
glosses: Magnetic or optical recording media in a roll; videotape or audio tape.
examples: text: “It was one of the most severe beatings they’ve seen on tape,” an FDNY insider said, recalling the reaction by brass who viewed video of the bloody fisticuffs.
ref: 2018 August 18, Susan Edelman, New York Post:
glosses: Any video or audio recording, regardless of the method used to produce it.
examples: text: Old couples will sometimes play tapes at each other during a fight.
glosses: An unthinking, patterned response triggered by a particular stimulus.
examples: text: Don’t fight the tape.
topics: business
finance
trading
glosses: The series of prices at which a financial instrument trades.
raw_tags: from ticker tape
examples: text: His pass was right on the tape.
topics: hobbies
ice-hockey
lifestyle
skating
sports
glosses: The wrapping of the primary puck-handling surface of a hockey stick
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: A strong flexible band rotating on pulleys for directing the sheets in a printing machine.
examples: text: white tape, Holland tape, blue tape (gin); red tape (brandy or wine)
text: Madam Gin has been christened by as many names as a German princess : every petty chandler's shop will sell you Sky-blue, and every night-cellar furnish you with Holland tape, three yards a penny. Nor can I see the difference […]
ref: 1827 (originally 1755?), Connoisseur, page=223
text: […] who is now puffing his pipe and sipping his grog, as unconcerned as a Dutch fiddler at a merry-making, has no business here selling his cheese and candles in the day-time, and his yards of tape in the evening: […] and now then for the tape-shop. […]
ref: 1817, The White Dwarf: A London Weekly Publication, page 222:
text: A tumbler of blue ruin fill, fill for me! / Red tape those as likes it may drain, / But whatever the lush, it a bumper must be. / […] / Oh! those jovial days are ne'er forgot! But the tape lags—When I be's dead, you'll drink one put To poor old Bags!
ref: 1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Paul Clifford. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
qualifier: possible
glosses: Liquor, alcoholic drink, especially gin or brandy. (Especially in prison slang or among domestic servants and women.)
examples: text: [When dealing with the] Federal Government, "red tape" is unavoidable. Perseverance, good humor and thoroughness will almost invariably cut through the "tape” or lead to the proper official where courteous and attentive treatment will be received.
ref: 1923, Henry C. Clark, Departmental Practice, Admission of Attorneys, Etc, page 7:
text: He was going to cut through the tape and ship this Army stuff straight to France.
ref: 1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings, page 53:
text: Mr. Cheney: […] to move in the direction of deciding that the only way to get anything done, to cut through the red tape, to be able to move aggressively, is to have it done, in effect, inside the boundary of the White House. […] Mr. North: […] there are certainly times when one has to cut through the tape.
ref: 1988, United States Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, Iran-Contra Investigation: … One Hundredth Congress, First Session, page 26:
text: As Treasurer and Governor of Texas, she had an ability to cut through the tape and conventions to get stuff done and make things better. She modernized systems, made government more transparent and accountable and[…]
ref: 2011 March 1, Simon Maier, Jeremy Kourdi, The 100: Insights and lessons from 100 of the greatest speakers and speeches ever delivered, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd, →ISBN, page 295:
glosses: Clipping of red tape (“time-consuming bureaucratic procedures”).
Derived terms: adhesive tape
athletic tape
audiotape
audio tape
barricade tape
bias tape
binding tape
blue tape
box-sealing tape
braintape
breast the tape
broad tape
Broselow tape
cassette tape
cleavage tape
club tape
correction tape
crime scene tape
cut red tape
demo tape
don't fight the tape
double-sided tape
dress tape
duck tape
duct tape
electrical tape
electric tape
fashion tape
fight the tape
filament tape
fish tape
friction tape
gaffer tape
gaff tape
gray tape
green tape
grippy tape
grip tape
hockey tape
idiot tape
insulating tape
lingerie tape
live on tape
magnetic tape
mag tape
masking tape
measuring tape
medical tape
mix tape
nametape
on tape
packing tape
painter's tape
painting the tape
paint the tape
paper tape
parcel tape
party tape
play the same tape
police tape
punched paper tape
punched tape
red tape
reel to reel tape
reel-to-reel tape
reel-to-reel tape recorder
rim tape
roll tape
roll the tape
Scotch tape
scratch tape
sellotape
Sellotape
sex tape
speed tape
splice tape
sports tape
sticky-tape
sticky tape
stone tape theory
strapping tape
streaming tape
surgical tape
swelling tape
tale of the tape
tape ball
tape deck
tape delay
tape dispenser
tape drive
tape echo
tape gag
tape knot
tape library
tape machine
tape measure
tape out
tape painting
tape player
tape-record
tape-recorded
tape recorder
tape recording
tape safe
tape tree
tape up
tape-worm
tapeworm
ticker tape
ticker-tape parade
ticker tape parade
time tape
time-tape
tit tape
trans tape
Turing tape
twill tape
videotape
washi tape
white tape