Meaning

• A tapering cylindrical pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask.

• A device used to dispense liquids.

  "We don't have bottled water; you'll have to get it from the tap."

• Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor.

  "a liquor of the same tap"

• A place where liquor is drawn for drinking.

• A device used to cut an internal screw thread. (External screw threads are cut with a die.)

  "We drilled a hole and then cut the threads with the proper tap to match the valve's thread."

• A connection made to an electrical or fluid conductor without breaking it.

  "The system was barely keeping pressure due to all of the ill-advised taps along its length."

• An interception of communication by authority.

• A device used to listen in secretly on telephone calls.

• A procedure that removes fluid from a body cavity.

  "abdominal tap"

Meaning

• To furnish with taps.

  "If we tap the maple trees, we can get maple syrup!"

• To draw off liquid from a vessel.

  "He tapped a new barrel of beer."

• To deplete, especially of a liquid via a tap; to tap out.

• To exploit.

  "Businesses are trying to tap the youth market."

• To place a listening or recording device on a telephone or wired connection.

  "They can't tap the phone without a warrant."

• To intercept a communication without authority.

  "He was known to tap cable television."

• To cut an internal screw thread.

  "Tap an M3 thread all the way through the hole."

• To turn or flip a card or playing piece to remind players that it has already been used that turn (by analogy to "tapping," in the sense of drawing on to the point of temporary exhaustion, the resources or abilities represented by the card).

• To cadge, borrow or beg.

  "I tried to tap a cigarette off him, but he wouldn't give me one."

• To drain off fluid by paracentesis.

• To advance someone for a post or job, or for membership of a club.

  "Trump interviewed Mueller for FBI job day before he was tapped for special counsel."