TAP

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.

To put a new sole or heel on; as, to tap shoes.

A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat. Addison.

A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel.

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. Wilhelm.

To strike a gentle blow.

A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.

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

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

A place where liquor is drawn for drinking; a taproom; a bar. [Colloq.]

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. (a) Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap. (b) Broached, or furnished with a tap; as, a barrel on tap. -- Plug tap (Mech.), 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 (Metal.), the slag of a puddling furnace.

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

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

To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing. Shak. He has been tapping his liquors. Addison.

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