tape

Pluraltapes (some meanings)

Formstapes, taping, taped

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Flexible material sold in rolls, coated with adhesive on one or both sides, used to fasten or seal things.

   He sealed the package with two strips of clear tape.

   Double-sided tape holds the carpet edges flat without nails.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Thin, flat strips of paper, plastic, cloth, or similar flexible material, typically produced in rolls.

   Workers stretched caution tape across the entrance to the construction site.

   The seamstress marked the hem with a length of cotton tape.

   Similarribbon, strip, band

   Note

   Closest to the word's origins: Old English tæppa already meant "ribbon, tape." Beyond that the trail goes cold, though the word is probably related to old Frisian and German verbs meaning "to pull, tear, snatch." Whatever the material, whether cloth, paper or plastic, what makes something tape in this sense is its shape: long, thin and flat.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To bind, fasten, or seal something with adhesive tape.

   Movers tape the boxes shut before loading them onto the truck.

   She taped a note to the refrigerator before leaving for work.

   Similarstick, seal, fasten, attach

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Recording material, either magnetic or optical, wound on a reel or spool, as used for audio and video.

   Archivists are transferring decades of footage from tape to digital files.

   The studio still keeps a few machines that can play reel-to-reel tape.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   Any audio or video recording, regardless of how it was made or stored.

   Reporters obtained tape of the senator's closed-door remarks.

   We've got the whole incident on tape from three different angles.

   Similarfootage, recording, video

   Note

   Here the medium has dropped out of the meaning. A recording made by any method is still said to be "on tape," because the phrase outlived the reels and cassettes themselves. Susan Edelman's 2018 New York Post report speaks of beatings "seen on tape" when the footage was simply video. The word is informal, so careful writing often prefers recording or footage.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To record audio or video, originally onto magnetic tape.

   We tape every rehearsal so the cast can review their timing.

   The interview was taped in front of a live audience.

   Similarrecord, film

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A strip of material stretched across a track to mark the finish line of a race.

   She lunged for the tape and won by a fraction of a second.

   Officials restrung the tape before the final heat of the day.

   Note

   A winning runner is said to break the tape, and the phrase carries the whole scene: the strip snaps as the leader reaches it. Because only the winner touches it, breaking the tape works as shorthand for winning the race, and it often travels with a finishing time, as in breaking the tape in 47.77 seconds.

8. 8
   noununcountableabbreviationclipping

   Clipping of red tape.

   He was going to cut through the tape and ship this Army stuff straight to France.

   1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings

   Note

   The short form leans on the full phrase for its meaning. Red tape was once the binding tape that tied up important documents, and then came to mean the procedures themselves. Tape on its own usually appears only after red tape has already been mentioned, or in the fixed phrase cut through the tape. Without that support, readers may take it literally.

9. 9
   nounusually singular

   The continuous series of prices at which a stock or other financial instrument trades.

   Experienced traders learn to read the tape rather than rely on headlines.

   After the announcement, the tape filled with large block trades.

   Similarticker

   Note

   A trader's word inherited from the ticker tape, the paper strip on which prices once printed out one after another. The name stuck to the stream of trades itself. Reading the tape means judging the market from that stream, and the maxim "Don't fight the tape" warns against betting against the direction prices are actually moving.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    The wrapping applied to the blade of a hockey stick, covering the surface used to handle the puck.

    Fresh tape on the blade gives the puck a bit more grip.

    The captain's saucer pass hit the rookie's tape in full stride.

    Note

    Hockey players wrap the blade in tape, and the word has come to stand for the spot where stick meets puck. A pass that lands "right on the tape" arrives exactly on the blade and needs no adjustment. The phrase is praise for accuracy, a way of saying a teammate could not have placed it better.

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