tape

From Middle English tape, tappe, from Old English tæppa, tæppe (“ribbon, tape”); further origin unclear. Probably akin to Old Frisian tapia (“to pull, rip, tear”), Middle Low German tappen, tāpen (“to grab, pull, rip, tear, snatch”), Middle High German zāfen, zāven (“to pull, tear”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /teɪ̯p/, [tʰeɪ̯p]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪp

tape (countable and uncountable, plural tapes)

1. Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.

   Hand me some tape. I need to fix a tear in this paper.

   I sealed up the box with clear shipping tape.

2. Thin and flat paper, plastic or similar flexible material, usually produced in the form of a roll.

   We made some decorative flowers out of the tape we bought.

3. Finishing tape, stretched across a track to mark the end of a race.

   Jones broke the tape in 47.77 seconds, a new world record.

4. Magnetic or optical recording media in a roll; videotape or audio tape.

   Did you get that on tape?

   • 1993, Vibe, volume 1, number 2:

     So we went around the corner, looked in the garbage, and, boom, there's about 16 of the tapes he didn't like!

5. (informal, by extension) Any video or audio recording, regardless of the method used to produce it.
   • 2018 August 18, Susan Edelman, New York Post:

     “It was one of the most severe beatings they’ve seen on tape,” an FDNY insider said, recalling the reaction by brass who viewed video of the bloody fisticuffs.

6. (informal) An unthinking, patterned response triggered by a particular stimulus.

   Old couples will sometimes play tapes at each other during a fight.

7. (trading, from ticker tape) The series of prices at which a financial instrument trades.

   Don’t fight the tape.

8. (ice hockey) The wrapping of the primary puck-handling surface of a hockey stick

   His pass was right on the tape.

9. (printing, historical) A strong flexible band rotating on pulleys for directing the sheets in a printing machine.
10. (possible, obsolete, UK, slang) Liquor, alcoholic drink, especially gin or brandy. (Especially in prison slang or among domestic servants and women.)

    white tape, Holland tape, blue tape (gin); red tape (brandy or wine)

    • 1827 (originally 1755?), Connoisseur, page=223:

      Madam Gin has been christened by as many names as a German princess : every petty chandler's shop will sell you Sky-blue, and every night-cellar furnish you with Holland tape, three yards a penny. Nor can I see the difference […]

    • 1817, The White Dwarf: A London Weekly Publication, page 222:

      […] who is now puffing his pipe and sipping his grog, as unconcerned as a Dutch fiddler at a merry-making, has no business here selling his cheese and candles in the day-time, and his yards of tape in the evening: […] and now then for the tape-shop. […]

    • 1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Paul Clifford. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

      A tumbler of blue ruin fill, fill for me! / Red tape those as likes it may drain, / But whatever the lush, it a bumper must be. / […] / Oh! those jovial days are ne'er forgot! But the tape lags—When I be's dead, you'll drink one put To poor old Bags!

11. Clipping of red tape (“time-consuming bureaucratic procedures”).
    • 1923, Henry C. Clark, Departmental Practice, Admission of Attorneys, Etc, page 7:

      [When dealing with the] Federal Government, "red tape" is unavoidable. Perseverance, good humor and thoroughness will almost invariably cut through the "tape” or lead to the proper official where courteous and attentive treatment will be received.

    • 1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings, page 53:

      He was going to cut through the tape and ship this Army stuff straight to France.

    • 1988, United States Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, Iran-Contra Investigation: [...] One Hundredth Congress, First Session, page 26:

      Mr. Cheney: […] to move in the direction of deciding that the only way to get anything done, to cut through the red tape, to be able to move aggressively, is to have it done, in effect, inside the boundary of the White House. […] Mr. North: […] there are certainly times when one has to cut through the tape.

    • 2011 March 1, Simon Maier, Jeremy Kourdi, The 100: Insights and lessons from 100 of the greatest speakers and speeches ever delivered, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd, →ISBN, page 295:

      As Treasurer and Governor of Texas, she had an ability to cut through the tape and conventions to get stuff done and make things better. She modernized systems, made government more transparent and accountable and […]

tape (third-person singular simple present tapes, present participle taping, simple past and past participle taped)

1. To bind with adhesive tape.

   Be sure to tape your parcel securely before posting it.

   • 2007, Ion Mihai Pacepa, Programmed to Kill:

     The agent had to dead-drop the locker key to the PGU by some simple means, such as by taping it underneath a predesignated park bench, where it could be retrieved unobtrusively, usually by an officer under illegal cover.

2. To record, originally onto magnetic tape.

   You shouldn’t have said that. The microphone was on and we were taping.

   • 2016, Doug Stanhope, Digging Up Mother:

     The warmup guy — as I now know is common for live audiences in taped television performances — kept fluffing the crowd like they were preschoolers.
     “Now what are you going to do when we introduce the first comedian?”
     Wild cheers.
     “C'mon, that's not good enough! Let's try it again! What are you going to do???”

3. (informal, passive voice) To understand, figure out.

   I've finally got this thing taped.

• tape off
• tape over

• → Danish: tape
• → Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tape, teipe

  Nynorsk: tape, teipa

• PETA, Paet, Pate, Peat, Peta, epta-, pate, peat, peta-, pâté, tepa

From English tape (“adhesive tape”).

• IPA^(key): /tɛjp/, [tˢɛjb̥]

tape c (singular definite tapen, not used in plural form)

1. Scotch tape, adhesive tape

• klisterbånd
• klæbestrimmel

• tape on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

From English tape (“magnetic tape”).

• singular IPA^(key): /tɛjp/, [tˢɛjb̥]
• plural IPA^(key): /tɛjpə/, [ˈtˢɛjb̥ə]

tape n (singular definite tapet, plural indefinite tapes or tape)

1. (rare) video or audio cassette tape

   Synonym: (more common) bånd

From English tape (“to bind with adhesive tape”).

• infinitive IPA^(key): /tɛjpə/, [ˈtˢɛjb̥ə]
• imperative IPA^(key): /tɛjp/, [tˢɛjb̥ˀ]

tape (imperative tape, infinitive at tape, present tense taper, past tense tapede, perfect tense er/har tapet)

1. tape (to bind with adhesive tape) [from 1965]

Borrowed from English tape.

• Audio:

  (file)

tape m (plural tapes, diminutive tapeje n)

1. tape

From taper.

• IPA^(key): /tap/

tape f (plural tapes)

1. a gentle touch
2. a pat

   Recevoir une tape sur la joue, la main, les fesses.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

tape

1. inflection of taper:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “tape”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• pâte, pâté
• péta

tape

1. inflection of tapar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ta.ˈpe/

tape (dependent form rape, third-person possessed form hape)

1. path
2. way
3. street

tape (plural tape-tape)

1. informal form of tapai

From Old English tæppa, tæppe (“ribbon, tape”); forms with a long vowel are difficult to explain.

• tappe

• IPA^(key): /ˈtap(ə)/, /ˈtaːp(ə)/

tape (plural tapes)

1. (rare) band, ribbon, tape

• English: tape (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: tape
• Yola: taape

• “tāpe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

tape

1. alternative form of tappe (“plug”)

tape

1. alternative form of tappe (“gentle touch”)

Borrowed from English tape.

tape m (definite singular tapen, indefinite plural taper, definite plural tapene)

1. alternative form of teip

tape (present tense taper, past tense tapa or tapet, past participle tapa or tapet)

1. alternative form of teipe

From Old Norse tapa. Cognate with Danish tabe, Swedish tappa and Faroese tapa.

tape (present tense taper, past tense tapte, past participle tapt)

1. to lose (opposite of win)

• tap

• “tape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse tapa. Cognate with Danish tabe, Swedish tappa, and Faroese tapa.

• tapa

• IPA^(key): /²tɑː.pə/

tape (present tense tapar or taper, past tense tapa or tapte, supine and past participle tapa or tapt, present participle tapande, imperative tap)

1. to lose (to come last, lose a match, lose money)

Borrowed from English tape.

• (noun): IPA^(key): /tæɪ̯p/
• (verb): IPA^(key): /²tæɪ̯.pə/

tape m (definite singular tapen, indefinite plural tapar, definite plural tapane)

1. alternative spelling of teip

tape (present tense tapar, past tense tapa, past participle tapa, passive infinitive tapast, present participle tapande, imperative tape/tap)

1. alternative spelling of teipa

• “tape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “tapa”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016

• apte, pate, paté

• Hyphenation: ta‧pe
• Rhymes: -api, -apɨ

tape

1. inflection of tapar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈteip/ [ˈt̪ei̯p]

• Audio (Costa Rica):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eip

tape m (plural tapes)

1. (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Philippines) Scotch tape, tape

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtape/ [ˈt̪a.pe]
• Rhymes: -ape
• Syllabification: ta‧pe

tape

1. inflection of tapar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “tape”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

tape c

1. alternative spelling of tejp (“tape”)

• tape in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tape in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Språkrådets frågelåda

tape

1. alternative form of teap
   • THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD:

     "Tape"——to turn a car over turning a corner.

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎^[1], volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 128