Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lever or projecting arm that moves or is moved by contact with another part, usually to transmit motion, as between a driving mechanism and a valve.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An early English spelling of tap.
  • noun In machinery, an arm, collar, lever, or cam attached to and projecting from a movable part of a machine in such manner that the motion of the machine intermittently brings it into contact with some other part to which it imparts an intermittent motion.
  • To cover with tapestry.
  • noun Carpet; tapestry; a piece of tapestry.
  • noun In medieval armor, one of the series of flexible plates hooked to the skirts of the cuirass.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mach.) A lever or projection moved by some other piece, as a cam, or intended to tap or touch something else, with a view to produce change or regulate motion.
  • noun a valve motion worked by tappets from a reciprocating part, without an eccentric or cam, -- used in steam pumps, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A lever or projection which is moved by some other piece, as a cam, or intended to tap or touch something else, in order to produce change or regulate motion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a lever that is moved in order to tap something else

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from tap.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From tap +‎ -et, possibly influenced by homophony with "tap it."

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Examples

  • There is no such thing as a tappet, a left-handed monkey wrench or a sky hook.

    Ask Mr. Fix-It! 2010

  • Without even looking at them, he said: "One of your tappet valves is stuck."

    A Film Career Pulled Into Focus Peter Bogdanovich 2008

  • On the Lancashire loom, these simple weaves can be made by installing a separate tappet shaft on which tappets of appropriate shape can be mounted and driven at the required speed by change-gearing from the bottom shaft.

    Chapter 6 1983

  • For multiple tappet shedding, for three or more independent staves, one cam of appropriate shape is needed for each stave.

    Chapter 6 1983

  • Bottles roll clanking on the floor, under the bonnet a hung-up tappet or two chatters its story of discomfort.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • Each time the bell falls and the tappet strikes the pawl, one compartment of the carbide containers discharges its contents down the shoot _K_ into the generating tank _B_.

    Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

  • A tappet on the bell of an equalising gasholder depresses a lever which causes water to flow into a funnel, the outlet of which leads to a generating chamber containing carbide.

    Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

  • The healds are drawn down by means of a series of levers adjoining one another, and worked by means of a rocking bar driven from the tappet shaft.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888 Various

  • The tappet on the bell also displaces a cap _H_ which covers the funnel-shaped mouth of the pipe leading to the generating chamber, which cap, except when the swivelled supply-pipe is being brought into play, prevents any extraneous moisture or other matter entering the mouth of the funnel.

    Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

  • The tappet _O_ attached to the bell of the gasholder come in contact with a pawl when the gasholder bell descends to a certain level and thereby rotates a pinion on the protruding end of the axis which carries the carbide containers _J_.

    Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

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