tap – English noun declension

English noun forms of tap

Noun: tap
Singulartap
Pluraltaps

Sample Sentences

  • 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. [1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 55:]
  • 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. [1825, Francesco Redi, translated by Leigh Hunt, Bacchus in Tuscany, a Dithyrambic Poem, […], London: […] [J. C. Kelly] for John and H[enry] L[eigh] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 14:]
  • I wish my aunt would send down some of this to the governor; it's a precious good tap. [1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “James Crawley’s Pipe Is Put Out”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 305:]
  • 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." [2020 May 14, Fred Kaplan, “‘Obamagate’ wasn’t even a Scandal the First Time”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 May 2023:]
  • 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. [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.”, in Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works, […], volume I, London: […] Joseph Moxon, published 1683, →OCLC, page 31:]
  • [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.— […] [1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Sir Watkin Phillips, Bart. of Jesus College, Oxon.”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, pages 72–73:]
  • Guard emerges from the tap, where he prefers breakfasting, […] [1857, [Thomas Hughes], chapter IV, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 87:]
  • 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, […] [1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “Cut Adrift”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, 1st book (The Cup and the Lip), page 47:]
  • The system was barely keeping pressure due to all of the ill-advised taps along its length.

Etymology

1. The noun is derived from Middle English tappe (“hollow device for controlling the flow of liquid from a hole, cock, faucet, spigot; hole through which the liquid flows; the liquid which thus flows”), from Old English tæppa, from Proto-West Germanic *tappō, from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“a plug, tap; peg; tapering stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”). Doublet of tapa.
2. The verb is derived from Middle English tappen (“to obtain (liquid, chiefly liquor) from a tap; to obtain and sell (liquor)”), from Old English tæppian (“to provide (a container) with a stopper; to obtain (liquid) from a tap”), and then either:
3. * from Old English tæppa (see above) + -ian (suffix forming verbs); or
4. * from Proto-Germanic *tappōną, from *tappô (noun) (see above).
5. Verb etymology 1, verb sense 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 verb etymology 1, verb sense 1.3.2. See: Middle English Nouns 'tappe', Old English Nouns 'tæppa', Old English Nouns 'tæppian', Old English Nouns 'tæppa'.

Verbs referencing "tap"

Spanish Nouns tapa, French Nouns tampon, German Nouns Zapfen, Galician Nouns zapa, Swedish Nouns tapp, Romanian Nouns talpă, Galician Nouns tampa, Portuguese Nouns tampa, Galician Nouns zapón.