Taps

How to spell taps

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce taps

What does taps mean?

1. nounValves or fittings that control the flow of water from a pipe.
2. verbStrikes or touches something lightly and repeatedly.

Taps in a sentence

• noun

  Both bathroom taps dripped all night and kept her awake.

• verb

  She taps the screen twice to unlock her phone.

• noun

  The plumber replaced the worn washers in the kitchen taps.

• verb

  He taps his pen on the desk whenever he is thinking.

Where does taps come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'tap' comes from the Old English 'tæppa', which meant the peg or plug used to stop the hole in a cask of beer or wine; pulling that plug let the liquid flow, which is why 'to tap' a barrel came to mean drawing liquid from it. The sense gradually broadened to cover any valve or fitting that controls the flow of liquid or gas, so a kitchen 'tap' is the modern descendant of that wooden cask-plug. A separate but related strand gave the verb meaning 'to strike lightly', though this 'tap' is thought to be of imitative or Old French origin echoing the small sound of a light knock. The plural and third-person form 'taps' simply adds the regular '-s' ending, and because the word ends in a sharp consonant cluster there is no doubling or vowel change to trip the speller. In American usage 'Taps' is also the name of the bugle call sounded at military funerals and at the end of the day, a sense recorded from the 1860s.

How the word is built

• tap (from Old English tæppa: a peg or stopper for a cask)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)