duct tape

English

A roll of duct tape

Alternative forms

• duct-tape

Etymology

Possibly a corruption or eggcorn of duck tape (“thick, canvas-like tape”), resulting from the relative obscurity of the term duck (“a strong, durable, tightly woven fabric; canvas”), reinforced by the use of the tape in joining together heating and air conditioning duct work. See also the etymology at duck tape.

Noun

duct tape (countable and uncountable, plural duct tapes)

1. A generally gray waterproof adhesive tape used for many purposes and easy to cut with the hands.

   Synonyms: duck tape, gray tape

   I used duct tape to cover the hole in a leaky pipe.

Translations

multipurpose waterproof tape

• Afrikaans: kleefband
• Arabic: شَرِيط لَاصِق m (šarīṭ lāṣiq)

  Hijazi Arabic: شَطَرْطون m (šaṭarṭōn)

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 牛皮膠紙／牛皮胶纸 (ngau⁴ pei⁴ gaau¹ zi²)

  Mandarin: 不透明膠帶／不透明胶带 (bútòumíng jiāodài), 塑膠膠帶／塑胶胶带 (sùjiāo jiāodài), 布基膠帶／布基胶带 (bùjī jiāodài)

• Danish: gaffatape c
• Finnish: ilmastointiteippi (fi), jeesusteippi (fi) (colloquial), jesari (fi) (colloquial)
• French: chatterton, ruban adhésif m
• German: Panzerband n, Gewebeklebeband n, Gewebeband n
• Hungarian: ragasztószalag (hu), szigetelőszalag (hu)
• Italian: nastro adesivo m
• Portuguese: silver tape f
• Russian: скотч (ru) m (skotč), изоле́нта (ru) f (izolénta)
• Spanish: cinta americana f, cinta plateada f, tape (es) m (Costa Rica), teipe m (Costa Rica)
• Swedish: vävtejp c, silvertejp c
• Ukrainian: клейка́ стрі́чка f (klejká stríčka)

Verb

duct tape (third-person singular simple present duct tapes, present participle duct taping, simple past and past participle duct taped)

1. (transitive) To use duct tape in order to tape one object to another.

   The government tells us we can protect against a chemical attack by duct taping the windows.

   • 2018, Tommy Orange, “Interlude”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 136:

     There are Schimmel Sister stickers, and Navajo Nation stickers, Cherokee Nation stickers, Idle No More, and AIM flags duct-taped to antennas.

Translations

use duct tape

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: teipata (ilmastointiteipillä)
• German: mit Gewebeband verkleben
• Russian: закле́ить ско́тчем pf (zakléitʹ skótčem), закле́ивать ско́тчем impf (zakléivatʹ skótčem), закле́ить изоле́нтой pf (zakléitʹ izoléntoj), закле́ивать изоле́нтой impf (zakléivatʹ izoléntoj), скле́ить ско́тчем pf (skléitʹ skótčem), скле́ивать ско́тчем impf (skléivatʹ skótčem), скле́ить изоле́нтой pf (skléitʹ izoléntoj), скле́ивать изоле́нтой impf (skléivatʹ izoléntoj)
• Spanish: pegar con cinta americana

See also

• gaffer tape

References

• duct tape on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “duct tape”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.