"duck tape" meaning in English

See duck tape in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: duck tapes [plural]
Etymology: Originally (from late 19th century) from duck (“a tightly woven fabric”) + tape, due to the make-up of the tape. The adhesive tape now commonly known as "Duck tape" (a trademark in the United States) has its origins in a product first created for the US military during World War II,https://www.duckbrand.com/about and the word "duck" was later associated with the waterproof qualities of this tape, as in the idea of "water off a duck's back".http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html The terms "duck tape" and "duct tape" overlap in modern usage. According to one theory, the modern product was originally called "duck tape". The term "duct tape" was then later applied because of mishearing and/or because the product was used to join together pieces of duct-work. However, this chronology has been questioned due to lack of documented evidence that "duck tape" predates "duct tape" as a name for the modern product.http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/14/tale_of_the_tape/ The Duck Brand website itself refers to "Duck Tape® Brand Duct Tape" https://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape, using "Duck tape" as the brand name, and "duct tape" as a generic description of the type of product. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|duck|tape|id1=fabric|t1=a tightly woven fabric}} duck (“a tightly woven fabric”) + tape Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} duck tape (countable and uncountable, plural duck tapes)
  1. (historical) A kind of tape made from, or incorporating, cotton "duck" fabric. Tags: countable, historical, uncountable
    Sense id: en-duck_tape-en-noun-CZIPWXrt Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 54
  2. (trademark, also used generically) A type of multi-purpose heavy-duty adhesive tape. Tags: also, countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Tapes Synonyms (duct tape): duct tape, gaff tape, gaffer tape, gaffer's tape, gray tape
    Sense id: en-duck_tape-en-noun-pknhBemW Disambiguation of Tapes: 23 77 Categories (other): English trademarks, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English genericized trademarks, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 54 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 44 56 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 35 65 Disambiguation of English genericized trademarks: 42 58 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 42 58 Disambiguation of 'duct tape': 25 75

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for duck tape meaning in English (4.6kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "duck",
        "3": "tape",
        "id1": "fabric",
        "t1": "a tightly woven fabric"
      },
      "expansion": "duck (“a tightly woven fabric”) + tape",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally (from late 19th century) from duck (“a tightly woven fabric”) + tape, due to the make-up of the tape. The adhesive tape now commonly known as \"Duck tape\" (a trademark in the United States) has its origins in a product first created for the US military during World War II,https://www.duckbrand.com/about and the word \"duck\" was later associated with the waterproof qualities of this tape, as in the idea of \"water off a duck's back\".http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html\nThe terms \"duck tape\" and \"duct tape\" overlap in modern usage. According to one theory, the modern product was originally called \"duck tape\". The term \"duct tape\" was then later applied because of mishearing and/or because the product was used to join together pieces of duct-work. However, this chronology has been questioned due to lack of documented evidence that \"duck tape\" predates \"duct tape\" as a name for the modern product.http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/14/tale_of_the_tape/ The Duck Brand website itself refers to \"Duck Tape® Brand Duct Tape\" https://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape, using \"Duck tape\" as the brand name, and \"duct tape\" as a generic description of the type of product.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "duck tapes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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        {
          "ref": "1894, The Electrical World, volume 24",
          "text": "In belting from the motor, connect to as large a pulley as possible and practical, and use a heavy duck tape, one inch wide, such as printers use on their large presses.",
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        "(historical) A kind of tape made from, or incorporating, cotton \"duck\" fabric."
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          "_dis": "23 77",
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            "Fundamental"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you can't fix it with duck tape, it's not worth fixing."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of multi-purpose heavy-duty adhesive tape."
      ],
      "id": "en-duck_tape-en-noun-pknhBemW",
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        "(trademark, also used generically) A type of multi-purpose heavy-duty adhesive tape."
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          "_dis1": "25 75",
          "sense": "duct tape",
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          "_dis1": "25 75",
          "sense": "duct tape",
          "word": "gaff tape"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "25 75",
          "sense": "duct tape",
          "word": "gaffer tape"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "25 75",
          "sense": "duct tape",
          "word": "gaffer's tape"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "25 75",
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  "etymology_text": "Originally (from late 19th century) from duck (“a tightly woven fabric”) + tape, due to the make-up of the tape. The adhesive tape now commonly known as \"Duck tape\" (a trademark in the United States) has its origins in a product first created for the US military during World War II,https://www.duckbrand.com/about and the word \"duck\" was later associated with the waterproof qualities of this tape, as in the idea of \"water off a duck's back\".http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html\nThe terms \"duck tape\" and \"duct tape\" overlap in modern usage. According to one theory, the modern product was originally called \"duck tape\". The term \"duct tape\" was then later applied because of mishearing and/or because the product was used to join together pieces of duct-work. However, this chronology has been questioned due to lack of documented evidence that \"duck tape\" predates \"duct tape\" as a name for the modern product.http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/14/tale_of_the_tape/ The Duck Brand website itself refers to \"Duck Tape® Brand Duct Tape\" https://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape, using \"Duck tape\" as the brand name, and \"duct tape\" as a generic description of the type of product.",
  "forms": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1894, The Electrical World, volume 24",
          "text": "In belting from the motor, connect to as large a pulley as possible and practical, and use a heavy duck tape, one inch wide, such as printers use on their large presses.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
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        "A kind of tape made from, or incorporating, cotton \"duck\" fabric."
      ],
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        "(historical) A kind of tape made from, or incorporating, cotton \"duck\" fabric."
      ],
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you can't fix it with duck tape, it's not worth fixing."
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        "A type of multi-purpose heavy-duty adhesive tape."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(trademark, also used generically) A type of multi-purpose heavy-duty adhesive tape."
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        "used generically"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "duct tape",
      "word": "duct tape"
    },
    {
      "sense": "duct tape",
      "word": "gaff tape"
    },
    {
      "sense": "duct tape",
      "word": "gaffer tape"
    },
    {
      "sense": "duct tape",
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    {
      "sense": "duct tape",
      "word": "gray tape"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  "word": "duck tape"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.