Forms: 1 tæppore, 2 -are, 6– tapper, Sc. tappar, topper. [OE. tæppere, f. tæppa, TAP sb.1, tæppian, TAP v.1: see -ER1.]
† 1. One who taps casks or draws liquor; a tavern-keeper; = TAPSTER 2. Obs.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 202/14. Caupus, i. tabernarius qui uinum uendit, tæppere.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., etc. (1889), 226. Na byþ ȝerihtwisud tæppere [L. caupo] fram synnum welera.
c. 1537. Thersites, in Four O. Pl. (1848), 82. The tapper of Tauystocke & the tapsters potte.
1618. D. Belchier, Hans Beer-pot, B j b. Ioaske Flutterkin, a Tapper.
† b. A retailer; cf. TAP v.1 4 b. Sc. Obs.
1478–9. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1869), I. 37. The provest and counsale of the towne ordanis the meilmen topperis fremen of the towne and [to] top his meill daylie.
1580. Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876), I. 82. That na topparis of small salt … by ony salt in greit … quhill ix houris of the daye.
1605. in Macgregor, Hist. Glasgow, xviii. (1887), 157. Tappers of woollen and linen cloth.
2. One who or that which taps, in various senses; e.g., one who taps trees for the sap or juice; a machine for milking cows.
1884. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 309/1. The tapper then goes round provided with the bark scraper.
1884. J. Scott, Barn Implements, xvii. 157. Tube-milkers, or tappers; Sucking machines; and Mechanical hand-milkers, or squeezers and strippers.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 2 March, 5/2. The ruthless destruction of date palms by ‘tappers’ is said to be most evident in Madras.
3. One who works a screw-cutting tap for threading holes or orifices: cf. TAP v.1 6.
1909. in Cent. Dict. Suppl.
