Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tap

Tap (tăp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Tapping.] [F. taper to strike; of Teutonic origin; cf. dial. G. tapp, tapps, a blow, tappe a paw, fist, G. tappen to grope.] 1. To strike with a slight or gentle blow; to touch gently; to rap lightly; to pat; as, to tap one with the hand or a cane.

2. To put a new sole or heel on; as, to tap shoes.

Tap, n. [Cf. F. tape. See Tap to strike.] 1. A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat. Addison.

2. A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel.

3. pl. (Mil.) A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed, — usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo. Wilhelm.

Tap, v. i. To strike a gentle blow.

Tap, n. [AS. tæppa, akin to D. tap, G. zapfen, OHG. zapfo, Dan. tap, Sw. tapp, Icel. tappi. Cf. Tampion, Tip.] 1. A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.

2. A plug or spile for stopping a hole pierced in a cask, or the like; a faucet.

3. Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor; as, a liquor of the same tap. [Colloq.]

4. A place where liquor is drawn for drinking; a taproom; a bar. [Colloq.]

5. (Mech.) A tool for forming an internal screw, as in a nut, consisting of a hardened steel male screw grooved longitudinally so as to have cutting edges.

On tap. (a) Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap. (b) Broached, or furnished with a tap; as, a barrel on tap. — Plug tap (Mech.), a screw-cutting tap with a slightly tapering end. — Tap bolt, a bolt with a head on one end and a thread on the other end, to be screwed into some fixed part, instead of passing through the part and receiving a nut. See Illust. under Bolt. — Tap cinder (Metal.), the slag of a puddling furnace.

Tap, v. t. 1. To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumor, etc.

2. Hence, to draw from (anything) in any analogous way; as, to tap telegraph wires for the purpose of intercepting information; to tap the treasury.

3. To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing. Shak.

He has been tapping his liquors. Addison.

4. (Mech.) To form an internal screw in (anything) by means of a tool called a tap; as, to tap a nut.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.