# tap

Pronunciation: say "TAP" /tæp/

## Verb

1. To strike or touch someone or something lightly, often repeatedly and with a soft, clear sound; also, to make such a sound, or to walk with light tapping steps.
   - Simple: To hit or touch something lightly, often again and again, making a soft, sharp sound.
   - _He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as we sat in traffic._
   - _Tap your toes on the floor to test the rhythm._
2. To break into or open up something in order to obtain or exploit what it holds.
   - Simple: To open up or break into something so you can use what is inside.
   - _Engineers learned to tap geothermal energy beneath the valley._
   - _The campaign tapped a deep well of public anger._
4. To touch a button, icon, or place on a device's touchscreen to start a function.
   - Simple: To touch a button or icon on a phone or other device to make it do something.
   - _Tap the home button to return to the main screen._
   - _He tapped the settings gear to change the volume._
6. To single someone out for a post, task, honor, or membership in an organization. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: To pick someone for a job, an honor, or a special role.
   - _The board tapped him to run the new division._
   - _Senior members tap promising recruits for the honor society._
9. To secretly listen in on or record phone calls or other communications, often by connecting a hidden device to the line.
   - Simple: To secretly listen to or record someone's phone calls using a hidden device.
   - _Agents tapped the landline to gather evidence._
   - _Authorities cannot tap a citizen's phone without a warrant._
10. To draw off liquid from a container or natural source, such as a barrel or a tree, often by fitting it with a tap or making an opening in it.
   - Simple: To open a barrel, tree, or other source so that liquid can flow out and be collected.
   - _Farmers tap the trees once the sap begins to rise._
   - _She tapped the barrel and filled a glass with cider._
12. In martial arts and wrestling, to submit by tapping the mat or the opponent several times, or to force an opponent to submit in this way.
   - Simple: In fighting sports, to give up by tapping the floor or opponent, or to make an opponent give up.
   - _She tapped quickly once the choke tightened around her neck._
   - _Wrestlers tap rather than risk a broken arm._
13. To cut an internal screw thread into a hole, or to create such a threaded hole in a piece of material.
   - Simple: To cut spiral grooves inside a hole so a bolt or screw can fit.
   - _The machinist tapped the block to accept the mounting bolts._
   - _Workers tap the holes after drilling them to size._
18. To hit a person or thing with a shot from a gun. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To shoot someone or something with a gun.
   - _The gangster drew his pistol and threatened to tap anyone who followed him._
   - _Through the scope, the soldier tapped the target twice before it fell._
20. To engage in sexual intercourse with a person. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To have sex with someone.
   - _He kept boasting about all the women he had tapped that summer._
   - _They barely knew each other before he tried to tap her._
15. To try to get something free of charge by asking or begging for it; also, to ask or beg a person for something free of charge. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To ask or beg someone to give you something for free.
   - _Every weekend he would tap his friends for small loans that he never paid back._
   - _Short of cash again, he tapped his brother-in-law, who handed over a twenty without a word._

## Noun

3. A hollow fitting with a valve, used to control the flow of a fluid from a cask, pipe, or other vessel.
   - Simple: A handle or valve you turn to control the flow of water, other liquids, or gas.
   - _Mineral deposits had slowly clogged the kitchen tap._
   - _She turned the tap to fill the watering can._
5. A light blow or strike that makes a clear sound, or the sound the blow produces.
   - Simple: A light hit that makes a clear sound, or the sound it makes.
   - _The steady tap of rain on the roof helped her sleep._
   - _A faint tap came from somewhere inside the wall._
7. Short form of tap dance: a style of dance in which metal plates on the shoes beat out rhythms on the floor. — Ellipsis of tap dance.
   - Simple: Short for tap dance: dancing in shoes with metal plates that tap out rhythms on the floor.
   - _Her favorite class is tap._
   - _They performed a routine that mixed tap and jazz._
8. A single touch on a button, icon, or location on a device's touchscreen to invoke a function.
   - Simple: A single touch on a phone screen or other touchscreen to make something happen.
   - _Each tap registers as a separate command._
   - _A quick tap brings up the keyboard._
11. A secret device for listening in on telephone calls or other communications, or the interception or recording made with it.
   - Simple: A hidden device that secretly listens to phone calls, or a recording made this way.
   - _The tap revealed conversations spanning months of the scheme._
   - _The judge threw out the tap because the police had never obtained a warrant._
16. A metal piece attached to the toe or heel of a tap dancer's shoe to produce a sharp tapping sound as the foot strikes the floor.
   - Simple: A small metal plate fixed under a dance shoe to make a sharp sound when the foot hits the floor.
   - _A loose tap on her left shoe rattled with every step._
   - _Dancers replace worn taps before a big performance._
17. A cylindrical tool with cutting edges at its lower end that cuts an internal screw thread inside a hole, turned by a handle fitted to its upper end.
   - Simple: A tool used to cut spiral grooves inside a hole so a screw or bolt can fit.
   - _The machinist selected a tap matched to the bolt's thread size._
   - _A dull tap will tear the threads instead of cutting them cleanly._
19. A shot fired from a firearm, typically a single round let off from a handgun or rifle. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A single shot fired from a gun or other firearm.
   - _The instructor fired a quick double tap, and both rounds hit the center of the paper target._
   - _At the range, the instructor showed us how to draw and put a fast double tap into the target._
14. A connection made onto an electrical conductor or onto a pipe or other channel for fluid, leaving the conductor or channel unbroken. *(British)*
   - Simple: A connection made to an electric wire or a pipe without cutting it.
   - _Unauthorized taps along the pipeline had left the towns at the far end short of pressure._
   - _The crew installed a tap on the feeder cable so the new pump station could draw power without an outage._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A single brief contraction of the vocal organs that produces a consonant, as when the tongue flicks once against the ridge behind the teeth; also, the sound so produced.
- (noun) A cone-shaped peg or pin that is put into or removed from a container's hole or vent to close or open it.
- (verb) To work as a tapster, drawing beer or other alcoholic drinks from a barrel or cask for customers.
- (noun) The long, tapering main root that grows straight down from a plant; more broadly, any object having a similar conical, pointed form.
- (verb) In card and board games, to turn a card or game piece sideways as a marker, so every player can tell it has already been used this round.
- (noun) Beer or other drink served from a cask, or one particular brand or grade of it, and loosely any sort or grade of thing.
- (noun) A way of selling government bonds gradually over a period, usually at a set price, with daily sales depending on market demand.
- (noun) A bar or pub room where beer and other drinks are poured from taps.
- (verb) In medicine, to remove fluid collected in a body cavity, such as the abdomen or chest, with a needle.
- (verb) To use something up until nothing is left.
- (verb) In poker, to bet as much as an opponent has left, so that they must risk all their chips to stay in the hand.
- (verb) To cut the main downward root off a plant.
- (verb) To form a spiral thread on the outside of a rod or bolt so that it becomes a screw.
- (verb) To fix a screw or similar fastener into a piece of material.
- (verb) To spend money or other resources freely and without holding back.
- (verb) To arrest someone.
- (verb) To touch a person's body lightly and repeatedly as part of certain kinds of psychological therapy.
- (verb) To mend a shoe by giving it a fresh sole or heel, or patching one of them.
- (verb) Of rabbits and hares in the breeding season, to drum on the ground with their feet.
- (noun) The slightest bit of effort or work, usually in negative statements.
- (noun) A patch fixed under a worn shoe heel or sole to mend it, and in some English dialects the sole itself.
- (noun) A bout of fever from malaria, a term used in British India.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–3, 9–11, 13–15, 17** — The noun descends from Middle English tappe and Old English tæppa, going back through Proto-West Germanic *tappō and Proto-Germanic *tappô (a plug, peg, or tapering stick) perhaps to Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (to lose; to sacrifice); it is a doublet of tapa. The verb comes from Middle English tappen and Old English tæppian (to fit a container with a stopper, or to draw liquid from a tap), either from the noun plus a verb-forming suffix or directly from Proto-Germanic *tappōną.
**Meanings 1, 4–8, 12, 16, 18–20** — The verb comes from Middle English tappen (to knock or hit lightly), either imitative of the tapping sound or from Old French tapper/taper (to tap) or Middle Low German tappen (to rap, strike). It is a doublet of dab. The noun derives from Middle English tap (a light blow), from either the verb or Old French tape (a light slap or pat).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tap (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).