tape

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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. (countable, uncountable)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. (countable, uncountable)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. (countable, uncountable)Magnetic or optical recording media in a roll; videotape or audio tape.

   “Did you get that on tape?”

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

5. (broadly, countable, informal, uncountable)Any video or audio recording, regardless of the method used to produce it.

   ““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. (countable, informal, uncountable)An unthinking, patterned response triggered by a particular stimulus.

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

7. (countable, uncountable)The series of prices at which a financial instrument trades.

   “Don’t fight the tape.”

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

   “His pass was right on the tape.”

9. (countable, historical, uncountable)A strong flexible band rotating on pulleys for directing the sheets in a printing machine.
10. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)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)”

    “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 […]”

    “[…] 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. […]”

    “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. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)Clipping of red tape (“time-consuming bureaucratic procedures”).

    “[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.”

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

    “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.”

    “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[…]”

verb

1. To bind with adhesive tape.

   “Be sure to tape your parcel securely before posting it.”

   “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.”

   “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)To understand, figure out.

   “I've finally got this thing taped.”

name

1. a nearly extinct language spoken on Vanuatu