Forms: 1 tæppian, 5–6 tappe, 6 tape, 7–8 tapp, 5– tap; also Sc. (in sense 4, 4 b) 5–7 top(pe, 6 talp, 6–7 tope, 7 taip, (topt). [Com. Teutonic: OE. tæppian, from tæppa TAP sb.1 = MLG., MDu., LG., and Du. tappen, MHG., Ger. zapfen, ON., Sw. tappa, Da. tappe, all from the cognate sbs. Cf. F. taper, to plug, from OLG.]
I. To open (a cask, reservoir).
1. trans. To furnish (a cask, etc.) with a tap or spout, in order to draw the liquor from it.
c. 1050. in Techmer’s Int. Zeitschr. für allg. Sprachwissensch. (1885), II. 125. Ȝyf þe ȝedryptes wines lyste, þonne do ðu mid þinum swyþran scytefingre on þine wynstran hand, swylce þu tæppian wille, and wænd þinne scytefinger adune.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/1. To Tappe, ceruidare.
1570. Levins, Manip., 27/22. To Tappe, fistulum addere.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), To Tapp a Vessel, to fix a Tapp in the Bung-hole … thereby to draw out the Liquor.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., III. iii. I will tap a barrel on purpose for you.
1880. Act 43 & 44 Vict., c. 24 § 90. The rectifier must not … tap, open, alter, or change any cask … containing any such spirits.
2. To pierce (a vessel, tree, etc.) so as to draw off its liquid contents; to broach; to draw liquid from (any reservoir); slang, to draw blood from the nose.
e.g., To bore into (a tree) so that sap may exude; to allow the molten metal to run from (a furnace); to pierce the wall of (a reservoir), to drain (a marsh).
1694. Westmacott, Script. Herb., 12. It [the Quicken] will yield a liquor, if tapt as we do birch in the spring.
1792. Belknap, Hist. New Hampsh., III. 114. The season for tapping the [maple] trees is in March.
1809. Nat. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 843/1. The maple tree … the oftener it is tapped the better.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Hill & Vall., iv. 60. He was just going to tap the furnace, i. e. to let out the fused iron.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, li. Perhaps, sir, he kicked a county member, perhaps sir he tapped a lord … blood flowed from noses, and perhaps he tapped a lord.
c. 1865. J. Wylde, in Circ. Sc., I. 419/2. The tree is ‘tapped’; that is, a hole is cut into it…, and the resin exudes.
1868. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1872), X. App. 199. What bogs he has tapped and dried, what canals he has dug.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 27. The natural reservoir being thus tapped, a spring of water flows out.
1897. Lilian Winser, Lays & Legends of the Weald of Kent, 52.
| ‘I know a man that’s rain-doctor, goes with a willow-wand, | |
| Where land sucks wet, nor can it keep a waterlay,’ says Bond, | |
| ‘And when it bend he’ll turn about, and where it p’int be found | |
| The place to sink a shaft to tap the well-spring underground.’ |
1900. G. C. Brodrick, Mem. & Impr., 315. The Braemar air … coming across treeless granite mountains which tap the rain-clouds as they sweep over.
b. spec. in Surg. To pierce the body-wall of (a person) so as to draw off accumulated liquid; to drain (a cavity) of accumulated liquid.
1655. [see TAPPING vbl. sb.1].
1685. Bonet’s Guide to Pract. Physician, VIII. 300. Concerning this operation, it must be observed, that Hydropicks must not be tapt, unless an Ezomphalos, or a starting of the Navel appear.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 62, ¶ 11. I have ever since my Cure been … dropsical; therefore I presume it would be much better to tap me.
1778. Latham, in Phil. Trans., LXIX. 56. I tapped her once in a fortnight.
1807–26. S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 527. If any of the viscera protruded … he used to reduce them, and then tap the hydrocele in the common manner.
1869. G. Lawson, Dis. Eye (1874), 71. Tapping the anterior chamber with a fine needle, and letting off the aqueous, will often do good.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 788. The peritoneal cavity and pleura become repeatedly full of fluid and have to be tapped again and again.
c. To tap an electric wire or cable: to divert part of the carrent, esp. so as to intercept a telegraphic communication.
1865. G. A. Townsend, John Wilkes Booth, 28. The colonel [Baker], to place himself nearer the theater of events, ordered an operator, with the necessary instrument, to tap the wire running to Point Lookout, near Chappells Point, and send him prompt messages.
1879. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 103. The telephone presents facilities for the dangerous practice of tapping the wire.
1892. N. Y. Tribune, 15 Jan., 7/5 (Funk). By tapping the wire for a message from Guttenburg the operator could interrupt communication with all three.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 3 April, 9/3. It would be an unheard of thing for any casual merchant steamer to ‘tap’ a company’s cable out at sea in order to gratify a private whim for news.
1897. Daily News, 14 July, 3/4. Extraordinary allegations of ‘tapping’ telegraph wires were made yesterday in a case heard at the Liverpool County Court.
3. fig. To open up (anything) so as to liberate or extract something from it; to open, penetrate, break into, begin to use.
e.g., To open up (a country, district, trade, mineral vein, etc.); to extract money or elicit information from a person); to rob (a till or house), pick (a pocket); to break (money) (BREAK v. 2 e); to broach (a subject).
1575. Gamm. Gurton, II. iii. Ye see … that one end tapt of this my short devise, Now must we broche t’other to, before the smoke arise.
1750. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 358. How does cet homme là … dare to tap the chapter of birth? Ibid. (1768), Hist. Doubts, 43. Dr. Shaw no doubt tapped the matter to the people. Ibid. (1781), Lett. to W. Mason, 22 May. After tapping many topics, to which I made as dry answers as an unbribed oracle, be vented his errand.
1828. Craven Gloss., s.v., To tap a note or sovereign, to get it changed.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, lxiii. Here I am—full of evidence—Tap me!
1864. Home News, 19 Dec., 19/2. So well had the interior of India been tapped by new roads.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 268. It is the intention of the owner to tap the vein by a tunnel.
1878. W. J. Thoms, in Folk Lore Rec., I. Pref. 16. Mr. Gomme has ‘tapped’—(I thank thee, Horace Walpole, for teaching me that word)—has tapped a subject which is, I believe, now in this country.
1901. Essex Weekly News, 29 March, 5/1. The first gentleman who was tapped for a subscription generously promised £30.
1903. F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality, I. 315. While he was entranced, we endeavoured to ‘tap’ Mr. Browne.
1906. U. B. Phillips, An American State-owned Railroad, in Yale Review, XV. Nov., 259. Then followed the demand for an adequate route to tap the West and bring cheap foodstuffs.
II. To draw off (liquid, etc.).
4. To draw (liquor) from a tap; to draw and sell in small quantities. Also fig.
1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 95. Me thynkith ȝe ben tapsteres in alle that ȝe don: ȝe tappe ȝour absoluciones that ȝe bye at Rome.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., 20. These Bussards thinke knowledge a burthen, tapping it before they haue halfe tunde it.
1621. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1816), IV. 669/2. Four pundis … of ilk Tune of wyne To be toppit, ventit, and sauld in smallis within the said burgh.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 46. The boyled liquor … is tapp’d out of the said Kettles, through holes beneath.
1677. Act 29 Chas. II., c. 2 § 1. Any … person or persons who doe or shall sell or tap out Beere or Ale publiquely or privately.
1737. (title) An Act for laying a Duty of Two Penies Scots upon every Scots Pint of Ale and Beer brewed for Sale, brought into, vended, tapped, or sold within the Town of Aberbrothock.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., III. (ed. 2), 236. The Beer or Ale in a Week after should be tapt.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, I. ii. (1875), II. 13. The City Council too must tap their liquor.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 126. On festive occasions, these lords alone possessed the privilege of tapping wine.
† b. transf. To retail (any commodity). Sc. Obs.
1478–9. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1869), I. 37. That na regratour by nor tap any vitale to regrate agane vnder the payne of pvnissing be the baillies after the tenour of the first act. Ibid., Top [see TAPPER1 1 b].
1538. Aberdeen Regr., XVI. (Jam.). For the spilling of the merkat in bying of wittail in gryt, & topping tharof befor none.
1573–4. Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876), I. 450. To pas to Dunbertane to arreist schippis for talping of greit salt.
1605. in Gross, Gild Merch. (1890), I. 222. To tapp tar, oil, butter, or to tapp eggs.
1615. Stirling Council Rec., in Trans. Nat. Hist. & Archæol. Soc. Stirling (1902), 61. Na craftsman [sal] buy, top, nor sell any merchand wairis.
c. absol. To draw liquor; to act as tapster.
a. 1597. Peele, Jests, Wks. (Rtldg.), 619/1. Those bomborts that live by tapping, between the age of fifty and threescore.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iii. 11. I will entertaine Bardolfe: he shall draw; he shall tap.
1625. Massinger, New Way, IV. ii. For which gross fault I here do damn thy license, Forbidding thee ever to tap or draw.
5. To draw off (liquid) from any source.
1597. [see TAPPING vbl. sb.1].
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 357. When the fluid lead is tapped, or drawn off.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. xi. He told Verdant, that his claret had been repeatedly tapped.
1873. Tristram, Moab, xviii. 361. Little rills tapped from the springs.
1894. Bowker, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 417. [It] floats on the top, and is easily tapped off.
† b. intr. fig. To ‘turn on the tap’ of gifts; to open the purse or pocket; to spend or ‘bleed’ freely. slang. Obs.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 550, ¶ 1. A certain Country Gentleman begun to tapp upon the first Information he received of Sir Roger’s Death.
1713. Steele, Guard., No. 58, ¶ 6. I design to stand for our borough the next election, on purpose to make the squire on t’other side tap lustily for the good of our town.
III. Technical uses.
6. Mech. a. To furnish (a hole) with an internal screw-thread, or (any part) with a threaded hole.
1808. Henry, in Phil. Trans., XCVIII. 287. The lower orifice … is tapped internally, for the purpose of receiving a small screw.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 131. A screw … is cut on the gudgeon … and a piece of iron … is tapped to fit it.
1833. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 105. The [gun] barrel having been tapped at the stouter end, and being fitted with the breech screw.
1902. Marshall, Metal Tools, 32. Holes of varying sizes … are drilled and tapped.
b. To furnish with an external screw-thread; to convert (a bolt or rod) into a screw.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sc. & Art, I. 40. The bolt or pin intended to be tapped, either with a screw-plate or stocks, is tapered in a small degree at the extremity.
1837. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 48. The lower part of the king-bolt is tapped with a screw and nut.
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 23. Each rod is tapped with a [screw-]thread.
c. To cause to pass through or in by screwing.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuilding, ii. 44. The angle-irons … are secured to the plating by 1 inch screws tapped through it.
1885. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. IV. 341/2. The hook should be ‘tapped’ in very tight.
7. To deprive (a plant) of its tap-root.
1792. Trans. Soc. Arts, X. 6. Young Oaks … are for the most part tapped at the time of removal.
Hence Tapped ppl. a.
1670. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Ess., 111. I caused a tap’d vessel to be filled.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 158. Two tapped holes in the bar.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 79. Four of the rivets … are through, and four are tapped.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, 459. Regularly tapped trees do not exceed 60 feet in height.
1881. W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., viii. 95. Tapped Wires … are pieces of wire about 31/2 inches in length … and cut with a screw-thread upon about half their length.
1902. Marshall, Metal Tools, 63. The thread should be tried into a nut or tapped hole of the right size from time to time until a proper fit is arrived at.
