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Entry 16 senses · 5 variants Webster, 1913

Tap

/tăp/ · IPA /tæp/
01 v. t. To strike with a slight or gentle blow; to touch gently; to rap lightly; to pat; as, to tap one with the hand or a cane.
imp. & p. p. Tapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Tapping
  1. 1.
    To strike with a slight or gentle blow; to touch gently; to rap lightly; to pat; as, to tap one with the hand or a cane.
  2. 2.
    To put a new sole or heel on; as, to tap shoes.
02 n. A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat.
  1. 1.
    A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat.
  2. 2.
    A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel.
  3. 3.
    A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed, -- usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo.(Mil.)
03 v. i. To strike a gentle blow.
  1. 1.
    To strike a gentle blow.
04 n. A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.
  1. 1.
    A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.
  2. 2.
    A plug or spile for stopping a hole pierced in a cask, or the like; a faucet.
  3. 3.
    Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor; as, a liquor of the same tap.[Colloq.]
  4. 4.
    A place where liquor is drawn for drinking; a taproom; a bar.[Colloq.]
  5. 5.
    A tool for forming an internal screw, as in a nut, consisting of a hardened steel male screw grooved longitudinally so as to have cutting edges.(Mech.)
Phrases & compounds
On tap — Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap.
Plug tap — a screw-cutting tap with a slightly tapering end.
Tap bolt — a bolt with a head on one end and a thread on the other end, to be screwed into some fixed part, instead of passing through the part and receiving a nut. See Illust. under Bolt.
Tap cinder — the slag of a puddling furnace.
05 v. t. To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumor, a keg of beer, etc.
  1. 1.
    To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumor, a keg of beer, etc.
  2. 2.
    Hence, to draw resources from (a reservoir) in any analogous way; as, to tap someone's knowledge of the Unix system; to tap the treasury.
  3. 3.
    To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing.
    “He has been tapping his liquors.” — Addison.
  4. 4.
    To form an internal screw in (anything) by means of a tool called a tap; as, to tap a nut, a pipe, or tubing.(Mech.)
  5. 5.
    to connect a listening device to (a telephone or telegraph line) secretly, for the purpose of hearing private conversations; also, to obtain or record (information) by tapping; -- a technique used by law enforcement agencies investigating suspected criminals. In the United States it is illegal without a court order permitting it.