Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To pack down tightly by a succession of blows or taps.
  • transitive verb To pack clay, sand, or dirt into (a drill hole) above an explosive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In blasting for quarrying and mining purposes, to fill (the hole made by the drill or borer) with tamping, after the charge of powder or other explosive has been introduced.
  • To force in or down by frequent and somewhat light strokes: as, to tamp mud so as to make a floor.

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

  • transitive verb In blasting, to plug up with clay, earth, dry sand, sod, or other material, as a hole bored in a rock, in order to prevent the force of the explosion from being misdirected.
  • transitive verb To drive in or down by frequent gentle strokes.

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

  • verb blasting to plug up with clay, earth, dry sand, sod, or other material, as a hole bored in a rock, in order to prevent the force of the explosion from being misdirected.
  • verb To drive in or pack down by frequent gentle strokes; as, to tamp earth so as to make a smooth place.

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

  • verb press down tightly
  • noun a tool for tamping (e.g., for tamping tobacco into a pipe bowl or a charge into a drill hole etc.)

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps back-formation from tampin, variant of tampion.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably related to French tamponner ("to plug or stop"). See tampion.

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Examples

  • I noted that he tamped extremely well and used the piston tamp, that is, the arm straight up and bent at the elbow.

    Boing Boing: May 11, 2003 - May 17, 2003 Archives 2003

  • No knock that I could see - but a variation on the Staub tamp, which is a four quadrant tamp.

    Boing Boing: May 11, 2003 - May 17, 2003 Archives 2003

  • And, in fact, one of the reasons that the White House put out this speech yesterday, so that everyone could read it, is to kind of tamp down this sort of hysteria that led up to it.

    CNN Transcript Sep 8, 2009 2009

  • It's to kind of tamp down this sort of hysteria that led up to it.

    CNN Transcript Sep 8, 2009 2009

  • And basically, I think, started to kind of tamp down the wild expectations there are out there.

    CNN Transcript Nov 5, 2008 2008

  • So, yes, as far as I know, the two times and each time those calls seemed intended, at least the leaking of the news of those calls seemed intended, to kind of tamp down this notion of a continuing feud.

    CNN Transcript Aug 7, 2008 2008

  • So, yes, as far as I know, the two times, and, each time, those calls seemed intended -- at least, the leaking of the news of those calls seemed intended to kind of tamp down this notion of a continuing feud.

    CNN Transcript Aug 7, 2008 2008

  • So they would like to really keep things quiet and kind of tamp down this whole vice presidential talk as best he can.

    CNN Transcript Jun 5, 2008 2008

  • LIN: They can just contain these fire and kind of tamp them down a little bit then the fire - because the heat rising creates its own winds ...

    CNN Transcript Jan 1, 2006 2006

  • I think that, you know, this was a time to kind of tamp tings down and not let it get as explosive as it's gotten now.

    CNN Transcript Mar 11, 2003 2003

Comments

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  • ...a moribund black rat

    with one red bubble slung from each shut nostril.

    Little bones crackle as she tamps it between

    too-narrow cast iron bars of a drain in

    the kerb.

    - Peter Reading, Eavesdropped, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977

    June 26, 2008

  • tamp, to flatten, to batten, to squash down by repeated soft pats, slightly like stamp

    July 16, 2008

  • Like me stuffing palooka into a cardboard box? I've always wanted a word for that.

    July 16, 2008

  • "Now for a bit of tamping down"

    -Nigella

    April 15, 2009

  • Tamp, a portmanteau of tap and stamp.

    November 3, 2021