taotai (taoti)

[Chinese, Taouism, Taouist. Same as Taoism, Taoist. tap1 (tap), n. [ For sikerly whan I was bore anon Deeth drough the tappe of lyf and leet it gon, And ever sithe hath so the tappe yronne, Til that almoost al empty is the tonne. Chaucer , Prol. to Reeve's Tale, 1. 38. The tap went in, and the cider immediately squirted out in a horizontal shower. T. Hardy , Under the Greenwood Tree, ii. 2. A faucet or cock through which liquor can be drawn from a cask. Compare spigot. -3. The liquor which is drawn through a tap: used to denote a particular quality, brew, or vintage. [Colloq.] Never brew wi' bad malt upo' Michael mas day, else you'll have a poor tap . George Eliot , Mill on the Flo , i. 3. 4. An instrument employed for cutting the threads of internal screws or nuts. It consists simply of an external screw of the required size, formed of steel, and more or le tapered, parts of the threads being filed away in order to present a series of cutting edges. This, being screwed into the nut in the manner of an ordinary bolt, forms the thread required. Taps are tap tap1 (tap), v.; pret. and pp. tapped, ppr. tapping. [ME. tappen, Wait with patience till the tumour becomes troublesome, and then tap it with a lancet. Sharpe, Surgery. The best form of instrument for tapping the pleura or peritoneal cavity. Quain, Med. Dict., p. 1091. Specifically-(a) To pierce (a cask) for the purpose of testing or using the liquor. To taste the little barrel beyond compare that he's go ing to tap. T. Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, ii. (b) To make an incision in (a tree or other plant) with a view to take some part of the sap: as, to tap the trunk of a maple-tree for the sap for making maple sugar. 2. To cut into, penetrate, or reach for the purpose of drawing something out: as, to tap telegraph-wires for the purpose of taking off a mes IMG:content-2845.png:[blocks in formation] II. in trans. To act as a drawer or tapster. I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap . Shak ., M. W. of W., i. 3. 11. To tap the admiral, to broach surreptitiously a cask of liquor: from the story that when a certain admiral's body was being conveyed to England in spirits the sailors tap ped the cask containing it, and drank the liquor. [Colloq.] tap2 (tap), v.; pret. and pp. tapped, ppr. tapping. [ With a riding-whip Leisurely tapping a glo y boot. IMG:content-2846.jpg:[graphic] Tennyson, Maud, xiii. He walked and tapped the pavement with his cane. Browning , How it Strikes a Contemporary. 2. To strike lightly with; hit some object a slight blow with. The by-standers began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. Irving , Sketch-Book, p. 61. 3. To peck or hack with the beak, as a woodpecker a tree, or a nuthatch a nut; break into or excavate with repeated blows.-4. To apply a thickne of leather upon, as a previously existing sole or heel. Compare heel - tap. II. in trans . To strike a gentle blow; pat; rap. A jolly ghost, that shook The curtains, whined in lobbies, tapt at doors. Tennyson, Walking to the Mail. tap2 (tap), n . [ tappe , tape ; v .] 1. A gentle blow; a slight blow, as with the fingers or a small thing. Gif I the telle trwly, quen I the tape haue, & thou me smothely hatz smyten, smartly. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. Š.), 1. 406. This is the right fencing grace, my lord: tap for tap , and so part fair. Shak ., 2 Hen IV., ii. 1. 206. 2. pl. Milit., a signal on a drum or trumpet, sounded about a quarter of an hour after tattoo, at which all lights in the soldiers' quarters must be extinguished.-3. A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel. - Tip for tap. See tip2. usually made in sets of three. The first, called the enter ing tap or taper tap , generally tapers regularly through- out its length; the second, or middle tap , sometimes ta- pers, but is usually cylindrical, with two or three tapering threads at the end; the third, called the plug - tap or fin- ishing tap , is always cylindrical, with the first two or three threads tapering off. See cut under screw -tap. - On tap. (a) Ready to be drawn and served, as liquor in a cask in distinction from liquor in bottles. (b) Tapped and furnished with a spigot or a tap, as a barrel or cask containing liquor. Pipe-tap, in mech ., a taper tap made in any one of the nominal sizes suitable for taptap4 (tap), n. A Scotch form of top1 . tap3 (tap), n. [Abbr. of tap - house or tap - room .] A tap-house or tap-room; also, the room in a tavern where liquor is drawn and served to guests. ping holes or fittings for receiving the screw-threaded ends of iron pipes such as are used in the arts of steam fitting and plumbing. These sizes are arbitrarily fixed, and are different from the actual sizes - the nominal sizes corresponding with the internal diameters of pipes, They would rush out into the hands of enterprise and labor like the other sort of loafer to a free tap . N. A. Rev., CXLIII. 57. Oh leeze me on my spinning-wheel,.. Frae tap to tae that cleeds me bien. Burns , Be and her Spinning-Wheel. Tap of tow. (a) The quantity of flax that is made up into a conical form to be put upon the distaff. Gae spin your tap o ' tow ! whereas the actual sizes are the same as those of the standard externally threaded ends of the pipes. (See also bot toming - tap .) Burns, The Weary Pund o' Tow. IMG:content-2847.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2848.png:[blocks in formation] telegraph-instrument.-5. A tape-line; a tape- measure.-6. A long narrow fillet or band of metal or mineral: as, a corundum tape .-7. Red tape. See the phrase below.-8. A tape- worm.-9. Spirituous or fermented drink. [Slang.] Every night cellar will furnish you with Holland tape [gin], three yards a penny. Red tape. (a) Tape dyed red, crimson, or pink, much employed in public and private busine for tying up papers. Hence-(b) The transaction of public busine as if it consisted e entially in the making, indorsing, taping, and filing of papers in regular routine; exce ive attention to formality and routine without regard to the right of the government or of the parties concerned to a reasonably speedy conclusion of the case. Of tapered tape - it [the Circumlocution Office] had used enough to stretch in graceful festoons from Hyde Park Corner to the General Post Office. And ye sall hae a' my skill and knowledge to gar the siller gang far - I'll tape it out weel. Scott , Heart of Mid-Lothian, xii. tapar , stop up, cover.] A heavy leather housing for the stirrup of the Californian sad- dle, designed to keep the foot from slipping tape-carrier (tāpʻkari-er), n . A tool-holder in tape i no cephalic (ta-pino-se-fal'ik or -sef'a- lik), lik), a . [ tapeinocephal - y + -ic .] In craniol., pertaining to, of the nature of, or having a l flattened skull. Also written tap i no cephalic . The skulls thus agree with the ordinary Bushman skull in most respects, being micro seme, platy rhine, tapeino- cephalic. Jour . Anthrop . Inst ., XVI. 150. tap-bar (tap'bär), n . See tap - hole . tap-bolt (tap'bolt), n. A bolt which is screwed into the material which it holds, instead of be- ing secured by a nut. Also tap - screw . tap-borer (tap'borer), n. A hand-tool for bortapeinocephaly (ta-pi-no-sefa-li), n. [ IMG:content-2849.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2850.png:[blocks in formation] ταπεινός, lying lying low, + κεφ κεφαλή, head.] The con- dition of having a flattened cranial vault. tape-line (tap'lin), n. An implement for mea- suring lengths, commonly a long piece of tape, but now often a specially made linen ribbon with wires included in the fabric to prevent stretching, or a ribbon of thin steel, marked with subdivisions of the foot or meter. This name is given especially to the larger measures, as those from 20 to 50 feet long, usually coiled in a case of leather or metal, and used by engineers, builders, and surveyors. tape-measure (tap'mezhur), n . A piece of tape painted and varnished and marked with subdivisions of the foot or meter; especially, such a piece about a yard or a yard and a half long, in use by tailors and dre makers. Com- pare tape - line . tapen (tā'pn), a. [ tape1 + -en2.] Made of tape. [Rare.] Then his soul burst its desk, and his heart broke its polysyllables and its tapen bonds, and the man of office came quickly to the man of God. C. Reade, Never too Late, xxv. ( Davies .) Same as bodkin , 3. form of the flame of a candle (or, le prob., from the converging form of the candle itself). It is po ible that the noun preceded the adj., and that taper2 , n., is merely a transferred use of taper1 , n. The AS. * tæper , in comp. taper - ær = Icel. tapar - öx , an ax, is not related, being ult. of Pers. origin, through Scand. tappara , top orŭ = Pol. top or , etc., = OBulg. to- poru = Hung. top or = Armenian tapar = Turk. teber , tabar , an ax, a hatchet.] 1. Long and becoming slenderer toward the point; be- coming small toward one end. Half a leg was scrimply seen;. Sae straught, sae taper , tight, and clean. Burns, The Vision, L taper2 (ta'per), v. [ Her tapering hand and rounded wrist Had facile power to form a fist. 2. To diminish; grow gradually le . Those who seek to thrive merely by falsehood and cun- ning taper down at last to nothing. J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 270. 3. To spring up in or as in a tall, tapering form. [Rare.] Sir George Villiers, the new Favourite, tapers up apace, and grows strong at Court. Howell, Letters, I. i. 2 To taper off. (a) To taper; become gradually le . (6) To stop slowly or by degrees; cease gradually. retards the motion of the water. Encyc . Brit ., XIII. 365. taper-candlestick (tā'pėr-kan dl-stik), n. In her ., a bearing representing a pricket candle- stick of any shape. tapered (ta pèrd), a . [ taper1 + -ed2.] Lighted with tapers. [Rare.] The taper'd choir, at the late hour of prayer, Oft let me tread. taperne (tā'pėr-nes), n. The state of being taper. A Corinthian pillar has a relative beauty, dependent on its taperne and foliage. Shenstone, Taste, Fold A rose leaf round thy finger's taperne , Keats , Endymion, i. In bot ., tape-needle (tap'nē"dl), n. tapenert, n. [ME., tape1 +-n-er.] A weaver; a narrower; one who regulates the width of taper-pointed (ta'per-pointed), a. the cloth. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), Glo ary, tape-primer (tap'primer), n . A form of pri- mer, now obsolete, for firearms, consisting of a narrow strip of paper or other flexible mate- rial containing at short and regular intervals small charges of a fulminating composition, the whole coated with a water-proof compos i- tion. It required a special form of lock, with a chamber to hold the tape, and mechanism for moving the fulmi nating charges forward succe ively to the nipple. taper1 (tä pèr), n. [ taper , tap or , W. tampr , a taper, torch; cf. Skt. tap , burn.] taper , a candle, taper; perhaps tapar = A candle, especially a very slender candle; any device for giving light by the agency of a wick coated with combustible matter. Sermon being ended, every Person present had a large lighted Taper put into his hand. Maundrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 72. Thou watchful Taper , by whose silent Light I lonely pa the melancholly Night. taper-vise (tā'per-vis), n. adapted for grasping objects of which the sides are not parallel. E. H. Knight. taperwise (ta'per-wiz), adv . In a tapering form; taperingly. It [the box-tree] groweth taperwise , sharpe and pointed in the top. Holland, tr. of Pliny, xvi. 16. Tapes (tā'pēz), n. [NL., τάπης , & carpet, see tappet1 .] A large genus of marine The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary tapestried Remnants of tapestried hangings, window-curtains, and shreds of pictures, with which he had bedizened his tatters. Scott , Waverley, lxiii. 2. Hung or covered with tapestry. In vain on gilded roof they fall, And lighten'd up a tapestried wall. = = Scott , L. of the L., vi. 23. tapestry (tap'es-tri), n.; pl. tapestries (-triz). [Formerly ly also tapistry , tapstrye ; with excrescent t, for earlier tapi erie , tapi erie , tapy ery tapy erye , tapecery , tapecerye , * tapiserie = = Sp. Sp. tapece tapecería Pg. tapeçaria , tap içaria = It. tappezzeria (ML tapiceria ), tapi erie , tapestry, hangings, tapi er , furnish with tapestry: see tapis , v.] A fabric resembling textile fabrics in that it consists of a warp upon which colored threads of wool, silk, gold, or silver are fixed to produce a pattern, but differing from it in the fact that these threads are not thrown with the shut tle, but are put in one by one with a needle. Pieces of tapestry have generally been employed for covering the walls of apartments, for which purpose they were used in the later middle ages and down to the seventeenth century, and afterward for covering furniture, as the seats and backs of sofas and arm-chairs. See cut under screen. In the desk That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry There is a purse of ducats. Shak., C. of E., iv. 1. 104. Aubu on tapestry. (a) Tapestry made at the former royal factory at Aubu on, in the department of Creuse, France. The factory was reorganized in the reign of Louis XIV. (6) Tapestry now made in the city of Aubu on for wall-hangings and curtains. The greater part of the modern tapestry offered for sale in Paris is attributed to this make. Some of it is of great beauty; but in general old designs are copied, or modified to suit the size of rooms for which the hangings are ordered. - Bayeux tapestry, a piece of needlework, 231 feet long and 20 inches wide, preserved in the hotel de ville of Bayeux in Normandy. It represents the invasion of England by William Normandy, with the previous incidents leading to the conquest, and is undoubtedly a contemporary work. Cluny tapestry, a strong thick cloth, made of wool and silk, especially for hangings and curtains, of which the manufacture was introduced into England about 1875: the designs are often ecclesiastical in character. - Gobelin tapestry. (a) A cla of rich French tapestries bearing complicated and often pictorial designs in brilliant and permanent colors, produced at the national establish ment of the Gobelins, Paris. (b) By abuse of the name, a printed worsted cloth for covering chairs, sofas, etc., in imitation of tapestry. See gobelin. - Needle-woven tapestry. See needle- woven. - Neuilly tapestry, a modern tapestry made on the Jacquard loom, in imitation of that of the Gobelins. - Ru ian tapestry. See Ru ian. Savonnerie tapestries, Savonnerie carpets, the production of the ancient factory of La Savonnerie, established at Paris under the reign of Henry IV., and afterward united with the Gobelins factory. - Tapestry Bru els carpet, Bru els carpet woven with a common loom and printed in the warp. - Tapestry carpet, a kind of twoply carpet of which the warp or weft is printed before weaving so as to form a figure in the fabric. It has a long warp, is often dyed of many colors and embroidered with threads of gold or silver, and is used for hangings as a substitute for real tapestry. - Tapestry velvet or patent velvet carpet, tapestry Bru els cut like Will on. - Tapestry weaver, one of certain recti grade spiders of the group Tubitelæ. tapestry (tap'es-tri), v. t.; pret. and pp. tapes tried, ppr. tapestrying. [Formerly also tapistry; We were conducted to the lodgings, tapistry'd with incomparable arras. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 8, 1641. The Trosachs wound, as now, between gigantic walls of rock tapestried with broom and wild roses. Macaulay , Hist. Eng., xiii.