5. (Mech.)
Defn: A tool for forming an internal screw, as in a nut, consisting of a hardened steel male screw grooved longitudinally so as to have cutting edges. On tap. (a) Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap. (b) Broached, or furnished with a tap; as, a barrel on tap. — Plug tap (Mech.), a screw-cutting tap with a slightly tapering end. — Tap bolt, a bolt with a head on one end and a thread on the other end, to be screwed into some fixed part, instead of passing through the part and receiving a nut. See Illust. under Bolt. — Tap cinder (Metal.), the slag of a puddling furnace.
TAP
Tap, v. t.
1. To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumor, etc.
2. Hence, to draw from (anything) in any analogous way; as, to tap telegraph wires for the purpose of intercepting information; to tap the treasury.
3. To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing. Shak. He has been tapping his liquors. Addison.
4. (Mech.)
Defn: To form an internal screw in (anything) by means of a tool called a tap; as, to tap a nut.
TAPA
Ta"pa, n.
Defn: A kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry; — sometimes called also kapa.