Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🥁 To make beats 📱 To type quickly
to tap out

to tap out

1 4.4
To touch something lightly with fingers or an object to make a rhythm
  • phrasal verb
  • /tæp aʊt/
translation icon : marcar
  • "Magic Piano" encourages creativity by allowing the student to tap out melodies and edit the music notated on the screen.
  • tap out a rhythm
  • tapped out a beat
  • tapped out the drumbeat

They can repair it with a therapy, with learning how to speak slower, learning how to tap out a rhythm during.

Examples

  • I tapped out a series of CQs with my telegraph key.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • In "Rhythm," the student presses the computer keyboard's space bar to tap out the rhythm heard and/or seen.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Harry sits at the table tapping out a rhythm on the table and whistling very softly to himself.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Lodging a phone to his ear with a shoulder, he taps out a beat on the tabletop with a pencil.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Frustrated, Thing grabs a spoon and begins tapping out Morse code.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Telegraph box rattles, Brogan sits at his typewriter, and taps out the messages.

    The Human Comedy (1943)

  • He was tapping out a drumbeat on the counter's edge with the fingernails of both hands.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • His huge hand cradled her skull, his fingertips tapping out the tempo of the music on her forehead.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • I tapped out the usual greeting with my old-fashioned brass key, a relic of the 1920s spark-gap days, a present from my Uncle Lamar.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • As the music played, she couldn't help but tap out the beat with her fingers on the desk.

Synonyms

to beat
vsto tap out
  • NSFW
∞ 1.2

To hit something or someone again and again, making a rhythm

focuses on gentle, light tapping to create the rhythm rather than general hitting
to drum
vsto tap out
18 1.3

To make a continuous rhythmic sound by hitting a surface

does this similarly but uses light, repeated taps rather than full hits
to beat out
vsto tap out
2 3.6

Make a rhythm by hitting something repeatedly, like a drum

produces the same rhythm but by light repeated taps, often with fingers
to thump out
vsto tap out
1 7.0

To play a strong, repeated beat by hitting an instrument like a drum

uses light, gentle strikes to make the rhythm instead of forceful blows
to bang out
vsto tap out
  • Informal
1 7.8

To play music loudly and simply on an instrument

creates a rhythm quietly and lightly, emphasizing gentle repeated taps

How Loud

pound
15 4.7
to drum
18 1.3
to beat
  • NSFW
∞ 1.2
to tap out
1 4.4
pat
24 2.1
tick
34 2.0

Surface Forms

tap out infinitive
tapped out past
tapped out past participle
tapping out present participle
taps out third person singular

Morphology

tap + out

The constituent 'tap' clearly evokes the action of touching keys or a screen, so part of the meaning is accessible to learners who know that verb. However, the particle 'out' does not transparently signal 'compose or send a message' (it usually marks direction/location or completion), and the specialized sense 'tap out' = 'type a message' is a language-specific extension rather than fully predictable from the parts.

Etymology

Tap out comes from the simple image of someone lightly hitting a table or drum with their fingers or a stick to make a beat. When you tap out a rhythm, you make the pattern with taps, so the phrase means 'to produce a series of beats'.