Forms: 1 tæppa, 4 teppe, 5–7 tappe, 7 tapp, 5– tap. [Com. Teutonic: OE. tæppa (wk. masc.) = OLG. *tappo (MDu., MLG., LG. tappe, EFris. tappe, tap, Du. tap, NFris. tâp), OHG. zapfo (MHG. zapfe, Ger. zapfen), ON. tappi (Sw. tapp, Da. tap):—OTeut. *tappon-, orig. a tapering cylindrical stick or peg (cf. tap-root).]
1. A cylindrical stick, long peg, or stopper, for closing and opening a hole bored in a vessel; hence, a hollow or tubular plug through which liquid may be drawn, having some device for shutting off or governing the flow; used especially in drawing liquor from a cask, or water from a pipe, and for regulating the flow of gas, steam, etc.; a cock, a faucet.
c. 1050. in Techmer’s Int. Zeitschr. für allg. Sprachwissensch., II. 120. Ðonne þu win habban wille, þonne do þu mid þinum twam fingrum, swilce þu tæppan of tunnan onteon wille. Ibid. Tæppan teon.
1340. Ayenb., 27. Vor hit behoueþ þet zuich wyn yerne by þe teppe ase þer is ine þe tonne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 486/2. Tappe, of a vessel, ductillus, clipsidra.
1484. Caxton, Ryall Bk. (W. de W., 1507), enuye, ii. Thus synneth the enuyous man by his mouth. For nedes muste suche wyne come out of the tappe as there is within the vessel.
1530. Palsgr., 279/1. Tappe or spygote to drawe drinke at, chantepleure.
1588. Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 38. Sir Ieffry … tooke such vnkindenes at the alehouse, that he sware he would neuer goe againe into it … the tap had great quietnes and ease therby.
1659. Ufflet, Wits Fancies, Witts Tearme, ii. He fell asséepe with the tappe in his hand, while all the drinke ranne about the seller.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xx. (Roxb.), 231. The Cock or Tapp, letting out the hot water.
1768. Cook, Voy. round World, I. ii. (1773), 17. It was impossible … to draw out any of its contents by a tap.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 185. A few taps only are turned, and all is ready for lighting.
b. fig.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s Prol., 36. As many a yeer as it is … Syn that my tappe [v.r. tap] of lif began to renne.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., xi. 37. This whole tractate of yours,… is but the droppings of other mens taps.
1658. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., II. verse 16. viii. (1669), 203/2. Labour to take the advantage of thy present relenting frame,… now the Ordinance hath thawed the Tap.
1896. Clara Bell, trans. Balzac’s A Bachelor’s Establishment, 263. She will wriggle like a worm, and yelp, and melt into tears; but let the tap run!
1907. Daily Chron., 18 April, 5/6. There was certainly a ‘tap on,’ as the vulgar phrase is, in the market yesterday, and much scrip was thrown out at 1/2 to 5/8 premium.
c. On (in) tap, on draught, ready for immediate consumption or use (lit. and fig.). † To sell by tap (Sc. Obs.), to sell in small quantities, to retail.
1483. Seill of Caus, Edin., 2 May (Jam.). That no common cremaris of the toune wse to sell be tap ony hammermans work.
1862. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. II. 54. Who is he that … has eloquence always on tap?
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, i. There’s a pretty brew in tap at the Pure Drop.
2. a. A tap-room or tap-house. colloq.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Tape, The Renters of the Tap … in Newgate.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., II. 11. June, Rabbit him! the tap will be ruined.
1837. J. D. Lang, N. S. Wales, II. 102. He had been drinking in the Tap over-night.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iv. Guard emerges from the tap, where he prefers breakfasting.
b. A pit in which tan-liquor is mixed; LEACH sb.2 2. ? Obs.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 307/1. Strong liquor called ooze or wooze prepared in pits called letches or taps kept for the purpose, by infusing ground bark in water.
3. a. The liquor drawn from a particular tap; a particular species or quality of drink. Also fig. a particular strain or kind of anything. colloq.
1623. trans. Favine’s Theat. Hon., I. i. 1. Such a one was called a Gentleman of the first Tappe.
1832. L. Hunt, Redi Bacchus in Tuscany, 75. Those Norwegians and those Laps Have extraordinary taps.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxiv. I wish my aunt would send down some of this to the governor; it’s a precious good tap.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf-t., vi. (1885), 139. Sentiment wasn’t his tap.
1902. A. Birrell, W. Hazlitt, iv. 55. His [Hazlitt’s] ‘tap’ was too bitter, his stride too long.
b. Short for Tap-cinder: see 6.
1878. Ure, Dict. Arts, IV. 493. Using such purple ore in the ordinary way, as fettling in conjunction with ‘tap,’ pottery mine, etc.
4. Mech. A tool used for cutting the thread of an internal screw, consisting of a male screw of hardened steel, grooved lengthways to form cutting edges, and having a square head so that it may be turned by a wrench.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ii. 31. Turn about the tap in the hole, and make grooves and threds in the Nut.
1816. [see screw nut: SCREW sb.1 22].
1875. Carpentry & Join., 81. A tap … to cut the requisite thread inside the nut.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 232. Taps for watch makers’ use are made by running a piece of steel through a screw plate.
5. An object having the shape of a slender tapering cylinder, as an icicle; esp. a tap-root.
1658. Phillips, Isicle,… a tappe of ice, a drop of water frozen.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xix. (1813), 318. The tap of the oak will make its way downward, in a direct line, through the hardest soils.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, xi. 497. The central axes of the trees do not elongate downwards into a tap but throw out horizontally on every side a thick net-work of roots.
6. attrib. and Comb., as, in sense 1, tap-dropping (also taps-droppings), -maker, -spirits; in sense 2, tap-boy, -man; also tap-auger, an auger for boring tap-holes; tap-bar, a testing bar placed in a cementation furnace and withdrawn for inspection during the process (Cent. Dict., 1891); tap-bolt, a threaded bolt that is screwed into a part, as distinguished from one that penetrates it and receives a nut; tap-borer, a tapering instrument for boring bung-holes or tap-holes; tap-cinder, the slag or refuse produced in a puddling furnace; tap-dressing, decoration of wells at Whitsuntide, a Derbyshire custom; † tap-lead, = tap-trough; tap-plate, a steel plate having holes, wormed and notched, for cutting external threads; a screw-plate (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); tap-rivet, tap-screw, = tap-bolt (hence tap-rivet v. trans., to secure by tap-rivets; tap-riveting, the use of tap-rivets); † tap-shackled a., ‘fettered’ by drink, drunk; † tap-staff, a staff used to stop the tap-hole of a mash-tub; † tap-stone, (?); tap-tool, = sense 4; † tap-tree, = tap-staff; † tap-trough, a leaden trough used in brewing; tap-water, water drawn through a tap; spec. water supplied by a system of pipes and taps for household use; † tap-whips, tap-whisk, dialect variants of TAP-HOSE; † tap-wort, the dregs of ale or beer; tap-wrench, a wrench for turning a tap-tool. See also TAP-HOLE, TAP-HOSE, etc.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 317/2. (Coopers’ Instruments) *Tap Auger.
1864. Webster, *Tap-bolt.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tap-borer.
1801. G. Hanger, Life, II. 97. A *tap-boy at a public-house.
1861. Lond. Rev., 16 Feb., 167. In the process of making malleable iron, which is called ‘puddling,’ there is a large quantity of refuse, known as *‘tap-cinder.’
1894. Daily News, 23 April, 8/4. Some time ago it was discovered that this tap-cinder contained an amount of phosphorus which rendered it of sufficient service for basic steel-making as to justify the cost of its transmission for that purpose to the continent.
1851. in N. & Q., 2nd Ser. IX. 431/1. A great deal of taste and fancy is exhibited in the … *‘tap-dressing.’ Ibid. (1860), 430/2. [He] was collecting [flowers] for the Pilsley ‘Well’ or ‘Tap’ dressing.
1892. Daily News, 22 Sept., 3/1. The Rev. G. S. Tyack’s account of the curious custom of well-dressing, or ‘tap-dressing,’ as it is called.
1608. Middleton, Fam. Love, IV. iii. How rank the knave smells of grease and *taps-droppings!
1678. Quack’s Academy, 4. Vials filled with Tap-droppings.
1429. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, III. 550/1. Vas plumbeum called *tapled.
1892. Pall Mall G., 23 March, 6/3. One of his former friends … a *tap-maker.
1848. J. H. Ingraham, Mark Manly, vii. 50–1. No one was to be found, except Ben Corly, the *tap-man, who truly replied that he could not be answerable for the broils of his guests.
1907. Month, July, 7. Not but what priests doctor their stuff and give short measure like any tap-man.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuilding, ii. 43. They are each composed of two angle-irons, *tap-riveted or screwed (and not through riveted) to the bottom plating.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 79. It is connected to the stem, either by angle-irons on each side, through riveted, and tap riveted to the stem. Ibid., 129. In riveting the angle-irons of bilge keels to the bottom plating *tap rivets are used. Ibid. *Tap riveting is employed in securing plates to forgings.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Tap-screw.
1604. J. Morris, Commpl.-bk. (Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 12 B v), lf. 6 b. A scholler of Cambridge being somewhat *tap-shackled walking in the streete met a blacke bull.
c. 1608. Healey, Disc. New World, 82. [He] being truely tapp-shackled, mistooke the window for the dore.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 572/13. Ceruida, a *tapstaf.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 319/2. The Brewers Thorn with the Tap Staff through the middle of it.
1703. J. More, Engl. Interest (ed. 2), 66. After this, you must lift up your Tap-staffe, and let out about a Gallon [from the mash-vat] … and put it up again, stopping your Tap-hole.
1522. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 106. Also I bequeth to my son John Trollop … the brewehouse … a brewelede with a mashefatt and a *tap-stone with a boltong arke and the bras pottes called Thornley Pottes.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 127. Screwing the rivet into a screw hole previously prepared for it by means of a *‘tap tool.’
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/1. A *Tap tre, ceruida, clipcidra.
1743. R. Maxwell, Sel. Tr. Soc. Improv. Agric. Scot., 284. Take out your Cork, or Tap-tree, and have a Tub below to receive the Lee that comes off.
1335. in Riley, Lond. Mem. (1868), 194. I *tappetroghe [of lead].
1881. Tyndall, Float. Matter Air, 81. Ice-water, distilled water and *tap-water … deprived of their powers of infection.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, i. 32. Wash in tap water and then in distilled water, dry and mount in zylol balsam.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., IV. (ed. 2), 267. In a [Mash-Tub] fix a Brass Cock of three Quarters of an Inch Bore in a *Tapwhips, or do it by Plug and Basket.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., *Tap-whisk.
1881. Leicester. Gloss., Tap-whisk,… the wicker strainer placed at the back of the tap inside a mash-vat, &c.
1582. Breton, Toyes Idle Head, Wks. (Grosart), 26/2. A cuppe of small *Tap worte.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sc. & Art, I. 40. The *tap-wrench is simply a lever, with a hole … to admit the rectangular head of the tap, for the purpose of turning it round.
