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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.

A lever or projection moved by some other piece, as a cam, or intended to tap or touch something else, with a view to produce change or regulate motion. G. Francis. Tappet motion, a valve motion worked by tappets from a reciprocating part, without an eccentric or cam, -- used in steam pumps, etc.

To try by the touch; to handle; as, to taste a bow. [Obs.] Chapman. Taste it well and stone thou shalt it find. Chaucer.

A key or thing touched to produce a tone. Tasto solo, single touch; -- in old music, a direction denoting that the notes in the bass over or under which it is written should be performed alone, or with no other chords than unisons and octaves.

dumb gymnastic apparatus for training the hands of pianists and organists, as to a legato touch.

Hence, to put the finishing touch to; to bring to completion; to perfect. During this interval of calm and prosperity, he [Michael Angelo] terminated two figures of slaves, destined for the tomb, in an incomparable style of art. J. S. Harford.

That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard. Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art. Pope.

Loss of power to distinguish heat or cold by touch.

The property possessed by living protoplasm of contracting, and thus moving, when touched by a solid or fluid substance.

soil, or wear out, by frequent handling; also, to cover with the thumb; as, to thumb the touch-hole of a cannon. He gravely informed the enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, and begged them to let him have a few more packs. Macaulay.

To touch lightly, so as to produce a peculiar thrilling sensation, which commonly causes laughter, and a kind of spasm which become dengerous if too long protracted. If you tickle us, do we not laugh Shak.

Sensible to slight touches; easily tickled; as, the sole of the foot is very ticklish; the hardened palm of the hand is not ticklish. Bacon.

A light touch or blow; a tap.

To touch or reach with the toes; to come fully up to; as, to toe the mark.

hydroid. -- Tooth edge, the sensation excited in the teeth by grating sounds, and by the touch of certain substances, as keen acids. -- Tooth key, an instrument used to extract teeth by a motion resembling that of turning a key. -- Tooth net, a large fishing net anchored. [Scot.] Jamieson. -- Tooth ornament. (Arch.…

th the water, or set adrift in a current, and so arranged that they will be exploded when touched by a vessel, or when an electric circuit is closed by an operator on shore.

A stroke; a touch. By this single trait Homer makes an essential difference between the Iliad and Odyssey. Broome.

ge in light or trivial amusements. They trifle, and they beat the air about nothing which toucheth us. Hooker. To trifle with, to play the fool with; to treat without respect or seriousness; to mock; as, to trifle with one's feelings, or with sacred things.

, and the southern the Tropic of Capricorn, from the names of the two signs at which they touch the ecliptic.

A dark-colored kind of marble; touchstone. [Obs.] Sir J. Harrington.