Theverb is derived fromMiddle Englishtappen(“to obtain (liquid, chiefly liquor) from a tap; to obtain and sell (liquor)”),[3] fromOld Englishtæppian(“to provide (a container) with a stopper; to obtain (liquid) from a tap”), and then either:
Verbsense 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 verbsense 1.3.2.
We don’t have bottled water; you’ll have to get it from thetap.
Is thetap water here safe to drink?
Taps, also called spouts or spiles, are valveless pipes inserted into drilled holes in maple trees to collect their sap as part of the process of making maple syrup
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 atap in the communal kitchen.
Thetap you drink from says a lot about you. There's a hierarchy to thetaps 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 itstap.
Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at the same time, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something" to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but if it was the sametap as he had tasted before, he had rather not.
1825, Francesco Redi, translated byLeigh Hunt,Bacchus in Tuscany, a Dithyrambic Poem,[…], London:[…][J. C. Kelly] forJohn and H[enry] L[eigh] Hunt,[…],→OCLC,page14:
Those Norwegians and those Laps Have extraordinarytaps: Those Laps especially have strange fancies: To see them drink, I verily think Would make me lose my senses.
It is true—and undisputed—that, in the weeks between the 2016 election and Trump's inauguration, several top Obama administration officials asked the National Security Agency to reveal the identity of an American citizen overheard on phonetaps speaking with Russian AmbassadorSergei Kislyak—a request known as "unmasking."
We drilled a hole and then cut the threads with the propertap to match the valve’s thread.
1678 January 11 – February 11 (Gregorian calendar),Joseph Moxon, “Numb[er] II. Applied to the Making of Hinges, Locks, Keys, Screws and Nuts Small and Great.”, inMechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works,[…], volume I, London:[…] Joseph Moxon, published1683,→OCLC,page31:
To fit thePin therefore to a true ſize, I in my Practiſe uſe to try into vvhatHole of theScrevv Plate, theTap or place of theTap, (if it be a taperingTap,) I make theNut vvith vvill juſt ſlide through;[…] But if theScrevv-Tap have noHandle, then it hath its upper end Filed to a long ſquare, to fit into an hollovv ſquare, made near theHandle of theScrevv-Plate: Put that long ſquare hole over the long ſquare on the top of theTap, and then by turning about theScrevv-Plate, you vvill alſo turn about theTap in theHole, and makeGrooves andThreds in theNut.
[H]ere has been nothing but canting and praying ſince the fellovv entered the place.—Rabbit him! thetap vvill be ruined—vve han't ſold a caſk of beer, nor a dozen of vvine, ſince he paid his garniſh—the gentlemen get drunk vvith nothing but your damned religion.—[…]
For the rest, both thetap and parlor of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters gave upon the river, and had red curtains matching the noses of the regular customers, and were provided with comfortable fireside tin utensils,[…]
Perhaps, sir, he kicked a county member, perhaps sir hetapped a lord—you may stare, sir, I repeat it—blood flowed from noses, and perhaps hetapped a lord. Who knows?
Slang for hitting someone on the nose and drawing blood.
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, whotappest 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 illegallytapping maple trees and stealing the gooey sap to make maple syrup.
2025 March 11, Sarah Lohman, “For Nova Scotians, Local Maple Syrup Is a Disappearing Pleasure”, inAtlas Obscura[6]:
My parents have beentapping 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.
1655, Lazarus Riverius [i.e.,Lazare Rivière], “Of the Dropsie in the Breast”, inNicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole, and William Rowland, transl.,The Practice of Physick,[…], London:[…] Peter Cole,[…],→OCLC, 7th book (Of the Diseases of the Breast), section III (Of Pestilential Feavers),pages163–164:
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. ThereforeHippocrates 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 orTapping for the Dropſie, in its proper Chapter.
A noun use.
1709 September 12 (Gregorian calendar),Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms;Richard Steele], “Thursday, September 1, 1709”, inThe Tatler, number62; republished in [Richard Steele], editor,The Tatler,[…], London stereotype edition, volume I, London: I. Walker and Co.;[…],1822,→OCLC,page372:
[…] I have, ever since my cure, been very thirsty and dropsical; therefore, I presume, it would be much better totap me, and drink me off, than eat me at once, and have no man in the ship fit to be drunk.
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 doestap 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, Gingertapped 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 totap 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 Instagramtaps 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 havetapped 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.
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 betapped by any modern weapons.
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 beingtapped.
"Oh, there is one thing," the Minister called after Lebel, "how did you know totap 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 Itapped all your telephones. Good day, gentlemen."
Ever worry about shadowy forcestapping 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.
A certain country gentleman began totap 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.
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; to secretly listen in on and/or record (a telephone call or other communication)
Verbsense 1.1.1 (“to arrest (someone)”) andsense 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.
Shetapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
1625, John Barlow, “Vers[e] 7. For God hath not giuen vs the Spirit of feare, but of power, and of loue, and of a sound mind.”, inAn Exposition of theSecond Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, the First Chapter.[…], London:[…] I[ohn] D[awson] forIohn Bellamie,[…],→OCLC,page180:
Let vs then get vviſdome in the guiding of all our ſpeeches, and perſvvaſions. Imitate the threſher, vvhen thou art to deale vvith thy Brother; vvho firſtTappeth his Corne in the ſheafe, before he lay on greater ſtroakes, for elſe the good graine vvould fly into euery corner, and the ſtravv not endure the flayle: ſo, begin by degrees vvith another, and vvhen he vvill endureTapping, then ſmite harder, or elſe thou doſt but labour in vaine.
I hope, continued the ſtranger, ſtroking dovvn the face of his mule vvith his left-hand as he vvas going to mount it, that you have been kind to this faithful ſlave of mine—it has carried me and my cloak-bag, continued he,tapping the mule's back, above ſix hundred leagues.
He did not see the sneer of contempt which passed all round the room,[…] as he sate theretapping his boot with his cane, and thinking what a parcel of miserable poor devils these were.
Bradlytapped the ashes from his pipe, signifying a leisured interlude over. "Time to get a move on," he said, and began to unlace his boots for wading.
(slang)Also in the formtap on the shoulder: toarrest (someone).
"You have to pack up and get out of there, girl. You could end up beingtapped for that pimp's murder. The police ain't gonna hear about finding your aunt Viv. Or about Andre's butt. What are y'all going to do if they point the finger at him? If the cops over there are like they are over here, they ain't gonna look no further than the first black man they can put their hands on. They'll put his long legsunder the jail."
What does waiting get you? Sure, I know the score, Connie. You ain't never beentapped. But what are you saving it for? It's either going to be me or some other guy. Look, if I join up with the Dags I gotta have a deb that gives. If I don't, all the guys will be ranking me.
Passion was wild. She was the first chick I'd been with who liked to fuck in strange places. I'dtapped that ass in the girl's bathroom in every fast food restaurant we could find.
What we're entitled to is a house in the Hamptons. Maybe a prescription drug problem. But happiness does not seem to be on the menu so smoke up and seal the deal with Blair because you're also entitled totap that ass.
"He's handsome, isn't he? If he didn't have a girlfriend, I'dtap him for sure." "Excuse me?" Emma looked over to see who was talking to her. A woman old enough to be her mother was eyeing the band. "The lead singer. Everyone wants him." The woman parted her lips and sighed.
But Sheila was in no mood for legalisms. "It never bothered you when we were married, though, did it, Denny? You and your brother copstapping everything with a pussy. Hey, dothey know? Russo and Big Monty, they know you're stirring tar?"
2019, Julia Kent, chapter2, inPerky (Do-over Series; 2),[Scotts Valley, Calif.]: [CreateSpace],→ISBN:
"If I weren't married," Hasty says, eyeing Parker like he's a side of grass-fed organic beef and she'sMichael Pollan, "I'dtap that."
Not something he worried a lot about since in his line of work, chances were better than good that he wasn't going to live that long. When your job was to step between a bullet and its intended recipient, sooner or later you were going to betapped, for sure.
2023 April 5, “Nicky Nine Door”[10]performed bySmiley:
Fuck a tap dance niggas head gettapped If you not a real member you won't get a pass
The attorney had the statement of title in one hand, and leaning back in his chair, read it demurely in silence, with the othertapping the seal end of his gold pencil-case between his lips.
2003 April 2, “Eddie”, “I Tapped Somebody!”, inrec.martial-arts[12] (Usenet):
Just started bjj [Brazilian jiu-jitsu] couple of months ago and i finallytapped someone!!! WOOOHOO! The guy itapped has been traiing a few more months than me, outweighs me by at least 30 pounds, and is in great shape from the army.
2004 April 7, “Araxen”, “UFC vs. Boxing”, inrec.sport.boxing[13] (Usenet):
[Genki] Sudo weighed 1/4 of what Butterbean [i.e.,Eric Esch] weighs and he stilltapped Butterbean.
2010,Tony Bove, “Your Pocket Picture Player”, iniPod & iTunes For Dummies (For Dummies), 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J.:Wiley Publishing,→ISBN, part IV (Playing It back on Your iPod or iPhone),page301:
Tap the Save Image button to save the picture in your iPod touch or iPhone photo library (in the Saved Images album) ortap Cancel to cancel.
As you type, your fingers play an idiosyncratic composition of keystroke rhythms on your keyboard. Similarly, the swipes andtaps on your touchscreen form a living signature of your movement. The emerging field of gesture biometrics uses these movement signatures in security and other applications in interface design.
2022 January 20, Jon Porter, “Amazon’s First Clothing Store Lets You Summon Clothes to the Fitting Room”, inThe Verge[15], archived fromthe original on5 January 2024:
Amazon says clothes racks will feature QR codes, which customers can scan to see available sizes, colors, customer ratings, and product details. Then, with atap of a button, selected items will be sent to a fitting room to try on without having to first rummage through racks.
One day reconnaissance informs us that the krauts have moved up their forward outposts in our sector. It could be the prelude to an attack. A patrol is organized to knock out the positions. In our platoon Kerrigan, Berner, and Thompson gettapped for service.
'Special Agent Hudgins,' he said, holding the door wide open. 'My office was closest to the scene so I gottapped to secure it for you Cincinnati guys. But I have to tell you, this wasn't what I expected when I got the call to come out here.'
2018 March 9, Drew Schwartz, “This New Yorker Hired a Hitman to ‘Take Care of’ His Noisy Neighbors, Feds Say”, inVICE[17], archived fromthe original on7 November 2023:
Unbeknownst to Rosquette, the contract killer he'd justtapped for the job was an FBI informant.
With his so-called election-fraud lawsuits being thrown out left and right, the president [Donald Trump] hastapped his personal lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] to spearhead his campaign's remaining legal options. Insiders are reportedly "concerned."
2025 January 3, Sofia Celeste, “Valentino Taps Thai Actress Freen Sarocha as Brand Ambassador”, inwwd.com[19]:
ValentinoTaps Thai Actress Freen Sarocha as Brand Ambassador[…] Thai actress Freen Sarocha has been appointed the house’s first female brand ambassador from Thailand.
Shetapped gently at the door, and vvas anſvvered by Madame, vvho vvas alarmed at being avvakened at ſo unuſual an hour, and believed that ſome danger threatened her huſband.
There was a light in Ingram's windows, which were on the ground-floor; hetapped with his stick on one of the panes—an old signal that had been in constant use when he and Ingram were close companions and friends.
1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, inGeorge Gascoigne, transl.,The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting.[…], London:[…]Thomas Purfoot, published1611,→OCLC,page240:
[A] Bore ſcreameth: a Hare & a Cony beateth ortappeth: a Fox barketh:[…] when they ſeeke or hunt after their mates.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
When Steve felt atap on his shoulder, he turned around.
1573,George Gascoigne, “A Discourse of the Adventures Passed by Master F. I.”, inA Hundreth Sundrie Flowres Bounde up in One Small Poesie.[…], London:[…] [Henry Bynneman and Henry Middleton for] Richarde Smith,→OCLC,page266:
And much greater is the wrong that rewardeth euill for good, than that which requireth tip fortap:[…]
[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 atap 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.
[T]he water wenttap,tap,tap against the bends, with a most melancholy sound.
1862, George Augustus Sala, “Down among the Bad Men”, inThe Seven Sons of Mammon:[…], volume II, London:Tinsley Brothers,[…],→OCLC,page194:
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 thetap of a drum,[…]
I was undressing in my own room, when, with a premonitorytap 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."
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 atap on the ground floor, but all his duties were on the first floor.
That put an end to work. They've hardly done atap 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.
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 (heeltaps a little run over), scuff on the right toe.
Now, until you get to wearing block shoes, the same sandals do for everything excepttap, and the world doesn't come to an end if you just wear your tunic knickers and a shirt fortap; 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.
2000, Ian Driver, “Sight and Sound: Tap Dancing”, inA Century of Dance, London:Hamlyn,→ISBN,page116, column 1:
As successful commercially as it was critically,Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk establishedSavion Glover as the newtap superstar.
I had one advantage: I can keep time pretty well, especially to jazz, which effectively is alltap is. I can beat out a rhythm to any tune.
2014 March 25, Samantha Grossman, “The 10 Best Tap Dance Scenes in Film”, inTime[21], New York, N.Y.:Time Inc.,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on15 December 2023:
act of touching a button, icon, or specific location on the touch screen on an electronic device such as a mobile phone to invoke a function—see alsoclick
[1873 February 1,James Wise, “Report on the Epidemic of Dengue in the Dacca District During 1872”, inThe Indian Medical Gazette, volume VIII, Calcutta: Wyman & Co.,page32, column 2:
According to the Yunani hakims dengue is a "tap safrow"—a fever due to excess of bile, and it is wonderful the amount of dark colored bile that passes away after a purgative, especially if that is not administered until the third day.]
1874, Stephen J Mac Kenna,At School With An Old Dragoon, second edition, London: Henry S. King & Co.,pages330–331:
[…] in despair, he fell back on the unfailing reason (to the native mind) for every unaccountable action, and declared that the horses hadtap, or fever. ¶ "Oh, that's all nonsense, Sooka!" replied Blunt to this assertion of his subordinate. They were walking along between the rows of stalls, making their morning inspection, and closely examining into the condition of every animal: "that's all nonsense! there's notap here. Every one of them is as cool and nice as he can be—perfect pictures of condition most of them, No, no; there's no fever whatever amongst them."
The country, my entertainer informed me, was considered perfectly safe, unless I feared thetap, the bad kind of fever which infests all the country at the base of the hills.
[Francis Grose] (1788), “Tap”, inA Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London:[…] S. Hooper,[…],→OCLC: “Tap. A gentle blow. A tap on the ſhoulder; an arreſt. To tap a girl; to be the firſt ſeducer. To tap a guinea; to get it changed.”
(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.) Forms a transitive/intransitive pair withdap(“to stick”).
Although this term can be used to mean a tap from which water flows, this usage is rare; the more common term iskraan. It is most commonly used to refer to a beer tap.
Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “tap”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[24], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
^Basrim bin Ngah Aching (2008),Kamus Engròq Semay – Engròq Malaysia, Kamus Bahasa Semai – Bahasa Malaysia, Bangi:Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “tap”, inGweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “tap”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
%2c_f.14_-_BL_Add_MS_27695.jpg)
