Meaning of tap | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A light blow or strike with a clear sound; a gentle rap; a pat; also, the sound made by such a blow or strike.
   countable, uncountable
2. A malarial fever.
   East, India, uncountable
3. Initialism of talk aloud protocol.
   abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
4. The station code of Tai Po Market in Hong Kong.
5. A conical peg or pin used to close and open the hole or vent in a container.
6. The smallest amount of work; a stroke of work.
   countable, informal, uncountable
7. Initialism of think aloud protocol.
   abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
8. Initialism of The Ada Project.
   abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
9. An object with a tapering conical form like a tap (etymology 1 sense 1); specifically, ellipsis of taproot (“long, tapering root of a plant”).
   broadly
10. 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.
    countable, uncountable
11. Initialism of total audience package: an offering that includes ads broadcast during every part of the schedule.
    abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
12. A hollow device used to control the flow of a fluid, such as an alcoholic beverage from a cask, or a gas or liquid in a pipe.
    broadly
13. A shot fired from a firearm.
    countable, slang, uncountable
14. A procedure that removes fluid from a body cavity; paracentesis.
    broadly, informal
15. 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.
    countable, uncountable
16. Liquor drawn through a tap (etymology 1 sense 2.2); hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor; also (figurative, informal), a certain kind or quality of any thing.
    broadly
17. A single muscle contraction in vocal organs causing a consonant sound; also, the sound so made.
    countable, uncountable
18. A device used to listen in secretly on telephone calls or other communications.
    broadly
19. 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.
    British, US, countable, dialectal, uncountable
20. A secret interception of telephone calls or other communications using such a device; also, a recording of such a communication.
    broadly
21. Ellipsis of tap dance.
    abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountable
22. A situation where a borrowing government authority issues bonds over a period of time, usually at a fixed price, with volumes sold on a particular day dependent on market conditions.
    broadly
23. A cylindrical tool used to cut an internal screw thread in a hole, with cutting edges around the lower end and an upper end to which a handle is fitted to turn the tool.
    broadly
24. Ellipsis of taphouse or taproom (“place where alcoholic beverages are served on tap”).
    British, abbreviation, alt-of, broadly, ellipsis
25. A connection made to an electrical or fluid conductor without breaking it; a tapping.
    British, broadly

Equivalents

Examples

“We don’t have bottled water; you’ll have to get it from the tap.”

“Is the tap 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”

“abdominal tap    pleural tap    spinal tap”

“a liquor of the same tap”

“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 same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not.”

“Those Norwegians and those Laps Have extraordinary taps: Those Laps especially have strange fancies: To see them drink, I verily think Would make me lose my senses.”

“I wish my aunt would send down some of this to the governor; it's a precious good tap.”

“telephone tap”

“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 phone taps speaking with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak—a request known as "unmasking."”

“bond tap    tap issue”

“We drilled a hole and then cut the threads with the proper tap to match the valve’s thread.”

“To fit the Pin therefore to a true ſize, I in my Practiſe uſe to try into vvhat Hole of the Screvv Plate, the Tap or place of the Tap, (if it be a tapering Tap,) I make the Nut vvith vvill juſt ſlide through; […] But if the Screvv-Tap have no Handle, then it hath its upper end Filed to a long ſquare, to fit into an hollovv ſquare, made near the Handle of the Screvv-Plate: Put that long ſquare hole over the long ſquare on the top of the Tap, and then by turning about the Screvv-Plate, you vvill alſo turn about the Tap in the Hole, and make Grooves and Threds in the Nut.”

“[H]ere has been nothing but canting and praying ſince the fellovv entered the place.—Rabbit him! the tap 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.— […]”

“Guard emerges from the tap, where he prefers breakfasting, […]”

“For the rest, both the tap 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, […]”

“The system was barely keeping pressure due to all of the ill-advised taps along its length.”

“When Steve felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around.”

“And much greater is the wrong that rewardeth euill for good, than that which requireth tip for tap: […]”

“[T]his is the right fencing grace, my Lord, tap for tap, and ſo part faire.”

“[W]hen a man's ſore beaten a both ſides already, Then the leaſt tap in jeſt goes to the guts on him; […]”

“[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.”

“[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.”

“[T]he water went tap, tap, tap against the bends, with a most melancholy sound.”

“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, […]”

“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."”

“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.”

“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.”

“Bone idle, Charlie was, he had never done a tap in the house, always 'busy' whenever she asked him to do anything.”

“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.”

“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.”

“As successful commercially as it was critically, Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk established Savion Glover as the new tap superstar.”

“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.”

“In this iconic staircase number [The Little Colonel], Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tutors Shirley Temple in the art of tap.”

“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.”

“[…] in despair, he fell back on the unfailing reason (to the native mind) for every unaccountable action, and declared that the horses had tap, 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 no tap 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 the tap, the bad kind of fever which infests all the country at the base of the hills.”

“But, when I heard her speak soft Urdu words, Like a white angel in her pity of us, No whit afraid of sitla, or of tap Fever or pest!”

CEFR level