slug vs tap

slug

noun
  • A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic. 

  • A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use. 

  • A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug. 

  • The last part of a clean URL, the displayed resource name, similar to a filename. 

  • A hard blow, usually with the fist. 

  • A black screen. 

  • A motile pseudoplasmodium formed by amoebae working together. 

  • A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine; also a black mark placed in the margin to indicate an error; also said in application to typewriters; type slug. 

  • A ship that sails slowly. 

  • The imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it. 

  • A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal. 

  • Any of many terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell. 

  • An accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive, used to increase adhesive weight and allow full power to be applied at a lower speed. It has trucks with traction motors, but lacks a prime mover, being powered by electricity from the mother locomotive, and may or may not have a control cab. 

  • A stranger picked up as a passenger to enable legal use of high occupancy vehicle lanes. 

  • A hitchhiking commuter. 

  • A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines. 

  • A discrete mass of a material that moves as a unit, usually through another material. 

verb
  • To hit very hard, usually with the fist. 

  • To drink quickly; to gulp; to down. 

  • To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. 

  • To make sluggish. 

  • To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel. 

  • To load with a slug or slugs. 

tap

noun
  • A place where liquor is drawn for drinking. 

  • A device used to dispense liquids. 

  • A device used to listen in secretly on telephone calls. 

  • A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound [ɾ] in the standard American English pronunciation of body. 

  • An interception of communication by authority. 

  • A tapering cylindrical pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask. 

  • A device used to cut an internal screw thread. (External screw threads are cut with a die.) 

  • The situation where a borrowing government authority issues bonds over a period of time, usually at a fixed price, with volumes sold on a particular day dependent on market conditions. 

  • A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat. 

  • A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel. 

  • A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed; usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo. 

  • Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor. 

  • A procedure that removes fluid from a body cavity. 

  • An Indian malarial fever. 

  • The act of touching a touch screen. 

  • A connection made to an electrical or fluid conductor without breaking it. 

verb
  • To operate an electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) by tapping a specific place on its (capacitive or other) touch screen. 

  • To draw off liquid from a vessel. 

  • To drain off fluid by paracentesis. 

  • To have sexual intercourse with. 

  • To put a new sole or heel on. 

  • To place a listening or recording device on a telephone or wired connection. 

  • To designate for some duty or for membership, as in 'a tap on the shoulder'. 

  • To touch one's finger, foot, or other body parts on a surface (usually) repeatedly. 

  • To deplete, especially of a liquid via a tap; to tap out. 

  • To furnish with taps. 

  • To exploit. 

  • To cadge, borrow or beg. 

  • To turn or flip a card or playing piece to remind players that it has already been used that turn (by analogy to "tapping," in the sense of drawing on to the point of temporary exhaustion, the resources or abilities represented by the card). 

  • To submit to an opponent by tapping one's hand repeatedly. 

  • To strike lightly. 

  • To advance someone for a post or job, or for membership of a club. 

  • To cut an internal screw thread. 

  • To make a sharp noise. 

  • To intercept a communication without authority. 

  • To force (an opponent) to submit. 

How often have the words slug and tap occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )