tamp

[tamp]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tamp ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to force in or down by repeated, rather light, strokes: He tamped the tobacco in his pipe.

(in blasting) to fill (a drilled hole) with earth or the like after the charge has been inserted.

Origin of tamp

First recorded in 1810–20; perhaps alteration of tampion

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tamp

load, lade, throng, crowd, bind, stuff, pile, cram, squeeze, smash, crash, slam, stab, sink, thrust, wedge, shove, ram, pack, overcrowd

Examples from the Web for tamp

Contemporary Examples of tamp

Smiley, meanwhile, tried to tamp down fears by comparing the Ebola outbreak to the SARS outbreak of 2003.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows: October 19
PunditFact.com
October 19, 2014
There is still a window of opportunity to tamp it down, but that window is closing.
CDC Director: First U.S. Ebola Patient ‘Critically Ill’
Abby Haglage
September 30, 2014
Sure, water filter makers put a bit of bactericide in their products to tamp down the infestation.
Are Water Filters B.S.?
Michael Schulson
August 19, 2014
To some degree, Washington colludes with China to tamp down the nuclear threat from North Korea.
A Winning Strategy for Iraq and Syria
Leslie H. Gelb
June 21, 2014
An executive of the National Auto Dealers Association claimed it would shut people out of the new car market and tamp down sales.
The Chicken Littles Are Wrong: Environmental Regulations Always Spur Innovation
Daniel Gross
June 9, 2014

Historical Examples of tamp

I could tamp a keg of powder so snugly into the hole of those skunks!
The Face of the Fields
Dallas Lore Sharp
Colonel Fraser paused to tamp down the tobacco in his pipe with a fingertip.
Dave Dawson with the R.A.F
R. Sidney Bowen
It is always a profitable labor to tamp the ground firmly about all the posts every spring.
American Grape Training
Liberty Hyde (L.H.) Bailey
The amount of tamping is indicated by the fact that about 16 men out of 72 on each shift did nothing but tamp.
Concrete Construction
Halbert P. Gillette
Care was taken to tamp the concrete so as to force the concrete stone into but not through the facing.
Concrete Construction
Halbert P. Gillette

British Dictionary definitions for tamp

tamp

verb (tr)

to force or pack down firmly by repeated blows

to pack sand, earth, etc into (a drill hole) over an explosive

Word Origin for tamp

C17: probably a back formation from tampin (obsolete variant of tampion), which was taken as being a present participle tamping

tamp

verb South Wales dialect

(tr) to bounce (a ball)

(intr usually foll by down) to pour with rain

Word Origin for tamp

probably special use of tamp 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tamp

1819, "to fill (a hole containing an explosive) with dirt or clay before blasting," a workmen's word, perhaps a back-formation from tampion, that word being mistaken as a present participle (*tamping).