faucet
- any device for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like by opening or closing an orifice; tap; cock.
Origin of faucet
Regional variation note
Examples from the Web for faucet
Contemporary Examples
The Iranian threat, of course, is real, but its immediacy gets turned on and off by the Prime Minister like a faucet.
Historical Examples
The drip-drip of water from the faucet sounded loud in the quiet.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
She watched with interest the water run steaming from the faucet.
Mary Rose of MifflinFrances R. Sterrett
The rhythmic dripping of a faucet is audible through the flat.
The Promised LandMary Antin
There was but one faucet at the Farm, and that was in the kitchen, by the sink.
The Heart of ArethusaFrancis Barton Fox
She went to the sink and, turning the faucet, saw a splendid flow of water.
Fred Fearnot's New RanchHal Standish
faucet
- a tap fitted to a barrel
- US and Canadian a valve by which a fluid flow from a pipe can be controlled by opening and closing an orificeAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): tap
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for faucet
n.
c.1400, from Old French fausset (14c.) "breach, spigot, stopper, peg (of a barrel)," of unknown origin; perhaps diminutive of Latin faux, fauces "upper part of the throat, pharynx, gullet." Barnhart and others suggest the Old French word is from fausser "to damage, break into," from Late Latin falsare (see false).
Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. Faucet is now the common word in American English for the whole apparatus.