tap
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
card-games
communication
communications
engineering
games
government
horticulture
law-enforcement
lifestyle
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
medicine
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
poker
sciences
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English tappe (“hollow device for controlling the flow of liquid from a hole, cock, faucet, spigot; hole through which the liquid flows; the liquid which thus flows”), from Old English tæppa, from Proto-West Germanic *tappō, from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“a plug, tap; peg; tapering stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”). Doublet of tapa.
The verb is derived from Middle English tappen (“to obtain (liquid, chiefly liquor) from a tap; to obtain and sell (liquor)”), from Old English tæppian (“to provide (a container) with a stopper; to obtain (liquid) from a tap”), and then either:
* from Old English tæppa (see above) + -ian (suffix forming verbs); or
* from Proto-Germanic *tappōną, from *tappô (noun) (see above).
Verb etymology 1, verb sense 1.3.5 (“to turn over (a playing card or playing piece) to remind players that it has already been used in that round”) alludes to the abilities or resources of the card or piece having been drawn on to the point of temporary exhaustion: see verb etymology 1, verb sense 1.3.2.
Inflected forms:
form: taps
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: tapping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: tappest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: tappedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: taps
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: tappeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: tap
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: tapping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tapped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To furnish (a container, etc.) with a tap (noun etymology 1, noun sense 2.2) so that liquid can be drawn.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: There's a very pretty brew in tap at The Pure Drop—though, to be sure, not so good as at Rolliver's.
Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, on Tuesday opened the tap to Nord Stream at a compressor station near Vyborg, north-west Russia.
The event is called "Men & Vulnerability," and when I walk in, I'm surprised to find about 50 people milling about, drinking free wine and pouring themselves beers from a tap in the communal kitchen.
The tap you drink from says a lot about you. There's a hierarchy to the taps in your house, and even if you don't observe it consciously you probably abide by it in some way. You may argue that the water all comes from the same source, but its taste is inarguably defined by the vibe of its tap.
gloss: To draw off (a liquid) from a container or other source; also, to draw off a liquid from (a container or other source).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He tapped the ten-year-old whiskey from its barrel.
If we tap the maple trees, we can get maple syrup.
Theſe Buſſards thinke knowledge a burthen, tapping it before they haue halfe tunde it, venting it before they haue filled it, […]
Come up, my good fellows, come to the Spotted Dog; I will tap a barrel on purpose for you; […]
Perhaps, sir, he kicked a county member, perhaps sir he tapped a lord—you may stare, sir, I repeat it—blood flowed from noses, and perhaps he tapped a lord. Who knows?
Behold, unhappy tippler, this curious machine; […] reflect, while it is yet time, what infinite torture will this instrument in the surgeon's hand inflict upon thee, and that thou, who tappest so many barrels, shall at last be thyself a tapped barrel; […]
Landowners and forest rangers in Maine are facing a surprising problem: thieves have been illegally tapping maple trees and stealing the gooey sap to make maple syrup.
My parents have been tapping their own trees since 2011. It’s become an important ritual for my family; the first sure sign of spring and one that connects us to traditions much older than written memory.
gloss: To draw off (a liquid) from a container or other source; also, to draw off a liquid from (a container or other source).
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: It is a hard thing to empty the vvater contained in the breaſt, becauſe the vvaies are not open by vvhich it ſhould be brought forth. Therefore Hippocrates doth adviſe to open the ſide, vvhich becauſe vve never ſee practiſed, and never read in any Author that it vvas done vvith good ſucceſs, vve cannot abſolutely approve; and vve may ſpeak of it as vve have of the Opening or Tapping for the Dropſie, in its proper Chapter.
[…] I have, ever since my cure, been very thirsty and dropsical; therefore, I presume, it would be much better to tap me, and drink me off, than eat me at once, and have no man in the ship fit to be drunk.
gloss: To break into or open up (a thing) so as to obtain something; to exploit, to penetrate; tap into.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Businesses are trying to tap the youth market.
He tried to tap cable television without a subscription.
Ye ſee maſters yͭ one end tapt of this my ſhort deuiſe / Now muſt we broche thoter to, before the ſmoke ariſe / And by the time they haue a while run.
Then up comes Mr. Brass, very brisk and fresh: […] folds his arms, and looks at his gentleman as much as to say, "Here I am—full of evidence—Tap me!" And the gentleman does tap him presently, and with great discretion too; drawing off the evidence little by little, and making it run quite clear and bright in the eyes of all present.
For our supper, Ginger tapped the local butcher, who gave us the best part of two pounds of sausages. Butchers are always very generous on Saturday nights.
From morning to night they were begging. They wandered enormous distances, zigzagging right across the county, trailing from village and from house to house, ‘tapping’ at every butcher’s and every baker’s and every likely-looking cottage, […]
"Yes, your buddy. A bit chewed up, I'm afraid. A burglar called it in. He was about to tap the house, then he saw the body. Pry marks on the doorjamb, so I buy it. Don't look inside if you've eaten."
Much has been made of the connection between Instagram and the generalized hipster sensibility, which places a premium value on the old, the artisanal, and the idiosyncratic. But Instagram taps a fetishization of the past that is more universal.
Agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Department of Homeland Security agency, have run facial recognition searches on millions of Americans' driver's license photos. They have tapped private databases of people's financial and utility records to learn where they live. And they have gleaned location data from license-plate reader databases that can be used to track where people drive.
gloss: To deplete (something); to tap out.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: At the range of a couple of hundred yards we emptied our magazines, firing bullet after bullet into the beasts, but with no more effect than if we were pelting them with pellets of paper. Their slow reptilian natures cared nothing for wounds, and the springs of their lives, with no special brain centre but scattered throughout their spinal cords, could not be tapped by any modern weapons.
gloss: To ask or beg for (something) to be given for free; to cadge, to scrounge; also, to ask or beg (someone) to give something for free.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
informal
transitive
examples: I tried to tap a cigarette off him, but he wouldn’t give me one.
Thanks, old man, Hynes said. I'll tap him too. […] Three bob I lent him in Meagher's. Three weeks. Third hint.
gloss: To connect a listening and/or recording device to (a communication cable or device) in order to listen in secretly on telephone calls or other communications; also, to secretly listen in on and/or record (a telephone call or other communication).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: They can’t tap the phone without a warrant.
mitchener. Why didn't you telephone? / balsquith. They tap the telephone. Every switchboard in London is in their hands, or in those of their young men.
On 3 May the Government decided to take over the Telephone Exchange, which had been operated since the beginning of the war mainly by C.N.T. workers; it was alleged that it was badly run and that official calls were being tapped.
"Oh, there is one thing," the Minister called after Lebel, "how did you know to tap the telephone line of Colonel Saint-Clair's private apartment?" Lebel turned in the doorway and shrugged. "I didn't," he said, "so last night I tapped all your telephones. Good day, gentlemen."
Ever worry about shadowy forces tapping your phone calls and listening in on your private conversations? Well, astronomers have some good news for you: it won't be aliens with their ears (or whatever auditory sensory organs they have evolved) to the speaker getting into your business—unless they've done a lot better than we have at funding radio astronomers.
gloss: To turn over (a playing card or playing piece) to remind players that it has already been used in that round.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
gloss: To force (an opponent) to place all their poker chips in the pot (that is, to go all in) by wagering all of one's own chips.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: I think there's an expression in poker. I'll tap you, Mr. Maverick.
gloss: To remove a taproot from (a plant).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To cut an internal screw thread in (a hole); also, to cut (an internal screw thread) in a hole, or to create an internally threaded hole in (something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Tap an M3 thread all the way through the hole.
gloss: To cut an external screw thread into (a bolt or rod) to create a screw.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To put (a screw or other object) in or through another thing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To act as a tapster; to draw an alcoholic beverage from a container.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Ile entertaine Bardolfe. He ſhall tap, he ſhall dravv.
[…] I heere doe damne thy licence, / Forbidding thee euer to tap, or dravv.
gloss: To spend money, etc., freely.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: A certain country gentleman began to tap upon the first information he received of sir Roger's death: when he sent me up word that, if I would get him chosen in the place of the deceased, he would present me with a barrel of the best October I had ever drank in my life.
Derived words: retap
tapper
tap into
tap off
tap on
tap or nap
tap out
tapped out
tap the admiral
tap up
untap
wiretapper
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: точа
roman: toča
lang: Dutch
word: tappen
lang: Dutch
word: aftappen
lang: Finnish
word: avata
lang: Finnish
word: laskea
lang: Finnish
word: valuttaa
lang: French
word: tirer
lang: German
word: anzapfen
lang: German
word: zapfen
lang: Hungarian
word: csapra ver
lang: Italian
word: estrarre
lang: Macedonian
word: наточува
roman: natočuva
lang: Macedonian
word: точи
roman: toči
lang: Norwegian
word: tappe
lang: Polish
word: napoczynać
lang: Polish
word: spuszczać płyn
lang: Slovak
word: stiahnuť
lang: Slovak
word: stočiť
lang: Swedish
word: tappa