taps

(tăps)

pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

A bugle call or drum signal sounded at night, as at a military camp, as an order to put out lights and also sounded at military funerals and memorial services.

[Perhaps alteration of taptoo, tattoo, variant of tattoo.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

taps

(tæps)

n (functioning as singular)

1. (Military) chiefly

a. (in army camps, etc) a signal given on a bugle, drum, etc, indicating that lights are to be put out

b. any similar signal, as at a military funeral

2. (Other Non-sporting Hobbies) (in the Guide movement) a closing song sung at an evening camp fire or at the end of a meeting

[C19: from tap¹]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

taps

(tæps)

n.

(used with a sing. or pl. v.) a bugle signal sounded in a camp or military post at night as an order to extinguish all lights.

[1815–25, Amer.; probably tap(too), variant of tattoo¹ + -s³]

taps

, last post - Taps, the bugle call for lights out, was originally a drum roll and got its name from the tapping of the drums; taps are also called last post.

See also related terms for lights.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

taps - (military) signal to turn the lights out

lights-out

bugle call - a signal broadcast by the sound of a bugle

armed forces, armed services, military, military machine, war machine - the military forces of a nation; "their military is the largest in the region"; "the military machine is the same one we faced in 1991 but now it is weaker"

Translations

амба

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Durdles taps, that wall represented by that hammer, and says, after good sounding: "Something betwixt us!" Sure enough, some rubbish has been left in that same six-foot space by Durdles's men!'

I take my hammer, and I tap.' (Here he strikes the pavement, and the attentive Deputy skirmishes at a rather wider range, as supposing that his head may be in requisition.) 'I tap, tap, tap.

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Now an impressive pause - then the bugle sang "TAPS" - translatable, this time, into "Good-bye, and God keep us all!" for taps is the soldier's nightly release from duty, and farewell: plaintive, sweet, pathetic, for the morning is never sure, for him; always it is possible that he is hearing it for the last time.

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Flinging down my books I sprang to the wall and as steadily as my beating heart would permit gave three slow taps upon it.

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Joe followed him up, step by step, his advancing left foot making an audible tap, tap, tap, on the hard canvas.

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But the best that he could do was to attempt to attract attention from below, and so, after many failures, he managed to work himself into a position in which he could tap the toe of his boot against the floor.

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But just keep your head and tap him--whatever you do, keep tapping him."

But Billy went on, tap, tap, tap, calmly, gently, imperturbably.

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It was well: for there now came a light tap, and Hetty, with a leaping heart, rushed to blow out the candles and throw them into the drawer.

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No one, no one in the next room, no one to turn the tap, no one to turn the scorpion!

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Bucketful by bucketful, from the tap at the sink in the corner, he filled a large galvanized-iron tub.

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Rouletabille, with a friendly tap on my shoulder, confessed that he had nothing more to learn at the Glandier; he had learned there all it had to tell him.

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