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tapper1

[tap-er]
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noun
  1. a person or thing that taps or strikes lightly.
  2. a telegraph key.
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Origin of tapper1

First recorded in 1800–10; tap1 + -er1

tapper2

[tap-er]
noun
  1. a person or thing that taps, as trees for the sap or juice, a blast furnace, cask, or other container for their contents, etc.
  2. a person who cuts screw threads into the surface of a circular opening, as of a pipe, nut, etc.
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Origin of tapper2

before 1000; Old English tæppere (not recorded in ME); see tap2, -er1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tapper

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • He almost had them believing in the Space Wave Tapper before he was through.

    Toy Shop

    Henry Maxwell Dempsey

  • Then, suddenly, came the sharp click of the “tapper” as it struck the “coherer.”

    Historic Inventions

    Rupert S. Holland

  • At first, all our attention is taken up by watching how the one tapper does his work.

    Rubber

    Edith A. Browne

  • He was asked what was his trade, and replied that he was a tapper.

    Essays of Travel

    Robert Louis Stevenson

  • Suddenly there sounded the sharp click of the tapper as it struck the coherer.

    The Story of Great Inventions

    Elmer Ellsworth Burns

British Dictionary definitions for tapper

tapper

noun
  1. a person who taps
  2. a tool or instrument that taps
  3. Northern English dialect an unstable and violent person
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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