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taps

American  
[taps] / tæps /

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

  1. a signal by bugle or drum, sounded at night as an order to extinguish all lights, and sometimes performed as a postlude to a military funeral.

taps British  
/ tæps /

noun

    1. (in army camps, etc) a signal given on a bugle, drum, etc, indicating that lights are to be put out

    2. any similar signal, as at a military funeral

  2. (in the Guide movement) a closing song sung at an evening camp fire or at the end of a meeting

"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

Etymology

Origin of taps

1815–25, probably tap(too) , variant of tattoo 1 + -s 3

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.