v.
1 rap, knock, dab, strike, peck; drum, beat:
Must you continually tap on the table with that blasted pencil?!
n.
2 rap, knock, dab, strike, peck, pat; tapping, tap-tap, rapping, knocking, pecking, beat, beating, patter, pattering:
I felt a tap on my shoulder. The tap, tap, tap of the dripping water was driving me mad.
n.
1 cock, stopcock, pet-cock, sillcock, seacock, spigot, spout, valve, US faucet:
Replace the washer in the tap to stop the leak.
2 bung, stopper, cork, spile, plug, stopple, peg:
Move the tap from the empty barrel to the new one.
3 wire-tap, bug, listening device, electronic eavesdropper:
I think there's a tap on my phone.
4 on tap.
(a) on draught, out of the barrel or keg:
They have real ale on tap.
(b) ready, available, on or at hand, waiting, in reserve, on call:
He promised to be on tap if I needed him for anything.
v.
5 drain, draw (off), siphon off or out, extract, withdraw:
We tapped the wine directly from the casks.
6 open, drain, unplug, sap, bleed, milk, broach, mine, use, utilize, make use of, put to use, draw on or upon, turn to account:
Whenever she needed money, she tapped her savings.
7 bug, eavesdrop on, wire-tap:
M.I.5 still taps her phone.