tap

tap

1. a particular quality of alcoholic drink, esp when contained in casks

2. the surgical withdrawal of fluid from a bodily cavity

3. a tool for cutting female screw threads, consisting of a threaded steel cylinder with longitudinal grooves forming cutting edges

4. Electronics chiefly US and Canadian a connection made at some point between the end terminals of an inductor, resistor, or some other component

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

tap

[tap]

(design engineering)

A plug of accurate thread, form, and dimensions on which cutting edges are formed; it is screwed into a hole to cut an internal thread.

A threaded cone-shaped fishing tool.

(electricity)

A connection made at some point other than the ends of a resistor or coil.

(engineering)

A small, threaded hole drilled into a pipe or process vessel; used as connection points for sampling devices, instruments, or controls.

(metallurgy)

A quantity of molten metal run out from a furnace at one time.

To remove excess slag from the floor of a pot furnace.

(mining engineering)

To intersect with a borehole and withdraw or drain the contained liquid, as water from a water-bearing formation or from underground workings.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

tap

1. A connection to a water supply main.

2. A faucet.

3. A tool used for cutting internal threads, as in a pipe.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

TAP

(1)

Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol

tap

(2)

hit

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

tap

(1) In communications, a connecting point on a line. For example, a wire tap is where a recording device is attached to a telephone line. See transceiver and bridged tap.

(2) (Amazon TAP) An Amazon Echo device. See Amazon Echo.

(3) To lightly touch a touch-sensitive screen. See double tap for more details.

(4) To press a key on a keypad.

(6) (TAP) (Telocator Alphanumeric Input Protocol) A protocol for transmitting text to a pager. Developed in the early 1980s, TAP was known as the Motorola Page Entry (PET) and IXO protocols and was adopted by Telocator, which later became the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA),

(5) To place a chip-based credit card near a terminal. See NFC and EMV.

The Chip Card Logo

This payment terminal screen shows a credit card being tapped to make a payment via NFC contactless communications.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Tap

 

(Screw Tap), a tool for cutting a screw thread in a previously drilled hole. A tap is a cylindrical spindle with cutting edges at one end. The other end, or shank, is designed to be fastened in a chuck or held in a tap wrench while being turned.

The main types of taps are manual taps; inside taps, for cutting a complete thread in through holes in one traverse; machine taps, for cutting threads mainly in blind holes on drilling machines, automatic machines, and special assembly-line units; machine-tool taps, for making threads in through holes on nut-tapping machines; grooveless taps, for cutting threads in through holes in one traverse; automatic taps, for cutting threads in nuts on automatic nut-tapping machines; and die and master taps, for cutting threads and thread gauges and removing the burrs in the threaded holes of circular dies. The materials used to make taps are alloy tool steel and high-speed steel.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.