online medical dictionary | definition of tap

Preferred term: Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol

Preferred term: hit

1. A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.

2. A plug or spile for stopping a hole pierced in a cask, or the like; a faucet.

3. Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor; as, a liquor of the same tap.

4. A place where liquor is drawn for drinking; a taproom; a bar.

5. <mechanics> 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. On tap. Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap. Broached, or furnished with a tap; as, a barrel on tap. Plug tap, the slag of a puddling furnace.

1. To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumour, etc.

2. Hence, to draw from (anything) in any analogous way; as, to tap telegraph wires for the purpose of intercepting information; to tap the treasury.

3. To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing. "He has been tapping his liquors." (Addison)

4. <mechanics> To form an internal screw in (anything) by means of a tool called a tap; as, to tap a nut.

Origin: AS. Taeppa, akin to D. Tap, G. Zapfen, OHG. Zapfo, Dan. Tap, Sw. Tapp, Icel. Tappi. Cf. Tampion, Tip.

(01 Mar 1998)