Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. inferior liquor, esp. its dregs.

c.1624		‘Statute for Swearers & Drunkards’ in Rollins Pepysian Garland (1922) 194: You with Taplash strong your corps doe cherish.
1630		J. Taylor ‘A Brood of Cormorants’ in Works (1869) III 5: His garments stunke most sweetly of his vomit, / Fac’d with the tap-lash of strong Ale and Wine.
1641		Wits Recreations n.p.: What, must we then a muddy taplash swill, / Neglecting sack?
1673		S. Parker Reproof to Rehearsal Transposed 221: And if it be Taplash (as you call it) it is of your own brewing.
1681		W. Robertson Phraseologia Generalis 597/2: Very tap-lash; dead drink .
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Taplash Wretched, sorry Drink, or Hogwash.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1793		J. O’Keeffe London Hermit (1794) 8: They’ve rare stingo at home, and yet come drinking our taplash.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. a publican.

1670		‘No Money, no Friend’ in Coll. English Ballads no. 67 🎵 Each Tap-lach [...] Would cringe and bow, and swear to be My Servant to Eternity.
1700		N. Ward Rambling Rakes 3: No sooner was this Fray ended, but C--- the Circuli Tap-Lash, fell a Railing at the Parvous Fishmonger .
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 320: Thus is it not evident, / Tap-lashes don’t thrive; / Since they swarm in most prisons, / Like Bees in a Hive?

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1709

N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 107: A Lawyer’s Clerk [...] would usher into the buxom Daughter of some Chancery-Lane Victualler, in hopes to be rewarded for his Trouble with a Taplash Maidenhead.

the Morning Advertiser newspaper, also known as the Gin and Gospel Gazette; also attrib.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1828		High Life in London 17 Feb. 5/4: [T]he Morning Post; with its fashionable slop [...] the Long Shore (Ledger), and Tap-tub (Morning Advertiser) .
1832		Satirist (London) 19 Feb. 61/2: [I]t is not what is said by the bloody old Times; [...] by that leaky thing called the Tap-tub.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 32 127/2: A contempt of English grammar which was pretty sure to recommend him to the tap-tub people as a writer of leaders.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.