Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to hit and thus draw blood from a victim’s nose; spec. to throw stones at (see cite 1866).

1687		C. Sedley Bellamira III i: bell.: I came to fight Sir; not to hear you prate. merr.: Then pluck out, that I may Tap thee presently (They go to Fight).
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) II ix: They roar’d out, on all sides, ‘Tap him, there – tap him.’.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 63: Swift at Bob’s snotty-box, his white fist flew, And soon a shower of the claret hue, Tapp’d by Jack’s mauleys, from Bob’s smellers burst.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 42: A blow given there [...] neither ‘bungs a peeper’ nor ‘taps a smeller.’.
1841		Dickens Barnaby Rudge (2003) 423: Perhaps, sir, he kicked a county member, perhaps sir he tapped a lord [...] blood flowed from noses.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Feb. 4/1: A man gets ‘his claret tapped’ and ‘his peepers bunged’ and ‘naps it on the conk’.
1866		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 5 Apr. 2/5: [H]e gave evidence [...] on a charge of stone-throwing, and as he was leaving the Court defendant in an undertone called him a foul name and threatened to ‘tap him again and warm him.’ ‘Tapping’ is the slang word for stone-throwing.
1897		Daily Tel. 19 July in Ware (1909) 241/1: Before the magistrate one of them explained that they were simply engaged in a friendly, good-humoured contest, the one whose nose got ‘tapped’ first paying for a round of beer for the company.

(b) to deflower a woman; often as tap a girl v. [note sense 1e].

1682		‘A Ballad’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 103: [Anne] Hyde’s not yet tapp’d.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) To tap a girl; to be the first seducer; in allusion to a beer barrel.
1798		‘Goody Burton’s Ale’ in Hilaria 79: Nightly at my door / Comes a gentle rapping, / ’Tis Miss Burton sure, / Who wants her barrel tapping.
c.1800		in Burns Merry Muses of Caledonia (1843) 132: Wert thou a hogshead of sparkling wine [...] I’d taste thee, and tap thee while potent and fine / And put in thy body my cock.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1961		W. Brown Girls on the Rampage 127: You ain’t as green as you make out. You ever been tapped, kid?

(c) to obtain change.

c.1786

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To Tap a Guinea, to Change it.

(d) (US) to exhaust one’s finances.

1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 12: Four-eighty-five just taps me.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘It’s [the kids] I’m thinking of all the time.’ ‘Did you think about them when you “tapped”?’.
1986		L. Block When the Sacred Ginmill Closes 140: ‘For all I know he’s got another fifty tucked away, or maybe the thirty was enough to tap him’.

(e) (US Und.) to hit on the head.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 420: Tap. To hit. Tap on the bean – hit on the head.
1933		N. Davis ‘Kansas City Flash’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 77: Get it off your chest before you get tapped on the conk.
1947		L.J. Valentine Night Stick 221: Time and again [detectives] instruct messenger boys to keep out of dark hallways where they might be conveniently tapped on the head.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 19: Tapped the screamer over the head right quick to shut him up.

(f) to have sexual intercourse [note sense 1b].

1947		C. Willingham End as a Man (1952) 19: Is it true you once tapped your sister?
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 34: You ain’t never been tapped. But what are you saving it for?
1969		Current Sl. IV:1 16: Tap, v. To make a sexual conquest; to receive sexual favors.
1992		(con. 1910s) F.M. Davis Livin’ the Blues 41: She kept begging me to take her on [...] Well, las’ night I broke down an’ tapped the thing.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 6: tap – have sex with: Look at that hottie. I could tap that ass.
2006		Burns & Mills ‘Soft Eyes’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 2 [TV script] I’m definitely tapping that pussy.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 256: Want me to wiggle, Mister Man? You know you wanna tap that ay-uss!
2015		K. Koke ‘I’m Nice’ 🎵 Come over here with that big butt / And shake that in front of me / And let me tap that properly.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] You and your brother cops tapping everything with a pussy.

(g) (drugs) to inject oneself with a hypodermic syringe.

1971

E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972) 182: tap [...] Inject a drug by tapping the end of the syringe in order to release the drug slowly. It is similar to a sexual combination of pain and pleasure.

(h) to shoot (dead).

2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 12: You tapped him with a rifle from a hundred yards out.
2022		Digga D. ‘Load Up’ 🎵 I went Mozart [i.e. a council estate] and tapped it.

(a) to arrest; cite 1860 refers to the arrest of a debtor by a bailiff; thus tapper, a policeman.

1830		Lytton Paul Clifford II 225: We are certainly scented here, and I walk about like a barrel of beer at Christmas, under hourly apprehension of being tapped!
1837		‘Love in the City’ in Bentley’s Misc. June 589: Your husband’s tapp’d by Tappington, the bum!
1848		Sinks of London Laid Open 43: We were stopped by a policeman, and very nigh got tapped.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 122: One firm [...] has paid me very great attention [...] and after the process of tapping was gone through, they have been kind enough to take me to their own home, and there safely keep me.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 84: Tappers, policemen.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 12 Oct. 12/3: ‘Sergeant Hicks may tap me at any time’.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 49: We were waiting for you before we tapped her.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

(b) (also tap for, tap up) to beg for, to accost someone for something, to ask for a loan, whether of money or fig.; often in phr. tap someone for; thus tapping adj.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 22/3: A few days after this, old Mrs. Fussanfether and two other Little Bethel ladies called down to condole with the man who had lost his wife, and if possible tap him for a fiver, or see how he felt about fastening on to a second rib. [Ibid.] 27 Jun. 10/2: You boil the billy, and with the blessing of heaven, I will tap the township.
1893		H. Lawson ‘The English Ne’er-Do-Well’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 236: He ‘tapped the guv’ for money and disgraced his father’s name.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 278: The other one [i.e. a journalist] would have certainly tapped me for five.
1904		Ade ‘Lonesome Trolley-Riders’ in True Bills 5: Mrs. Gillespie, [...] had tapped the Bank for seven large, iron Dollars.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 153: He usually [...] taps the butler for a tenner.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Mar. 4/7: Dead-beats waiting to tap Glowery’s affluent guests [...] Watch the unfinancial in the offing.
1911		E.S. Sorenson Dissertation of Travellers in Life in the Aus. Backblocks 78: The man, if he has no money and desires to tap the stations for rations, takes the precaution to hide his stock.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 July 7/2: To show the unjust treatment I receive, / I’ve even tapped them for a marriage leave, / I’ve told them that my ‘lines’ I will produce; / But all ‘khalass’ it’s not a bit of use – / ‘Not approved.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 115: If you want to draw the cashier is just going to lunch, he said, pointing backward with his thumb. [...] Look sharp and you’ll catch him. / – Thanks, old man, Hynes said. I’ll tap him too.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 36: He went there to tap her and she wouldn’t come across, so he did her in and helped himself.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 25: She had sucessfully ‘tapped’ me for five shillings.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 268: I couldn’t tap you. I know you have it hard.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 25: He have a feeling that if he don’t tap the Galahad early he would never be able to do it later on.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 31: The things I’d picked up from her over hundreds of previous loot-tapping visits.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 31: I have only a hazy memory of ‘Bum’, who had tapped me for a quid.
1982		P. Bailey Eng. Madam 79: When I tried to tap her for a loan.
1998		Guardian Sport 25 Sept. 16: Vic never taps anyone for money.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 178: Slagging everyone [...] tapping up Mort for a few bob.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 133: May as well tap Fatty for a C-note!
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 142: He pills a five spot ay his paokit [...] —Ah wisnae tryin tae tap ye up, ah’m pure protestin.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 38: Breaking away from brothel employment didn’t mean that she was forbidden to tap her sources for coke.

(c) to obtain money (other than as a loan).

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Mar. 13/4: Dead-beat (interrupting): ‘Oh! don’t waste my time if you ain’t goin’ to give us nothink. I want to tap this bloke a-comin’!’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 216: He departed before the Estate was tapped for the Inheritance Tax.
1934		D. Hammett ‘Two Sharp Knives’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 185: I’ve been telling her she was a chump not to tap him.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 176: He let Harry tap him for a fiver.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 131: Maws are fur tappin’, man. That’s aw aboot it. Fur buyin’ ye claes an geein’ ye money.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 142: Chas tapped him for a couple of quid, sending Wendy down the pub for more wine.

(d) (US) to interrogate, esp. using the ‘third degree’.

1918

Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/2: Crook Chatter [...] ‘We were recently “tapping” a crook [...] The third degree or sweating process is “tapping”’.

(e) (US) to select for a college fraternity or society; thus tapping n.

1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 44: Yale had a romance and glamour from the tales of [...] St. Regis’ men who had been ‘tapped for Skull and Bones.’.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 283: The tapping took place in chapel the last week of classes.

(f) to select, to ‘line up’.

1922		T. Thursday ‘Art for Artie’ Argosy All-Story 30 Dec. 🌐 Bill gets into a corking jam with the villain [...] and it begins to look as how Bill was gonna be tapped for a trip to the next world.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 54: When I was tapped for the draft, I was about to become a family man.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 88: He’s got somebody tapped for the killings.
1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 50: Have you heard anything about when we’ll be tapped for Glee?
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 135: William Jonas had been tapped to dedicate a bronze plaque that served to memorialize the victims.