tamp

• IPA^(key): /tæmp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æmp

Probably a back-formation from tampin (misinterpreted as tamping), a variant of tampion.

tamp (third-person singular simple present tamps, present participle tamping, simple past and past participle tamped)

2. (blasting) To plug up with clay, earth, dry sand, sod, or other material, as a hole bored in a rock.
3. To drive in or pack down by frequent gentle strokes

   Tamp earth so as to make a smooth place.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.

• tampon
• tamper

Perhaps confusion with damp.

tamp (third-person singular simple present tamps, present participle tamping, simple past and past participle tamped)

1. (transitive) To reduce the intensity of.
   • 2013, Kristina McMorris, The Pieces We Keep:

     A single thought tamped her outrage: the chance that Meredith wasn't alone in her suspicions.

   • 2014, Christy Carlyle, Scandalous Wager:

     Whatever doubts she struggled with, they hadn't tamped her hunger for him.

   • 2017, Ari Thatcher, Loving Her Alphas:

     A small bit of relief tamped her initial trepidation.

   • 2020, Jessie Gussman, An Amish Sanctuary:

     Lucy bit the inside of her cheek and tamped her anger down.

Unknown, but compare Dutch tamp, Swedish tamp.

tamp

1. the (free) end of a rope

• tampen brænder (“getting hotter”)

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *dewmbʰ- (“penis, tail, rod”), and cognate with German Zumpf (“penis”), Persian دنب (donb, “tail”), and perhaps Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“top”).

• IPA^(key): /tɑmp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tamp
• Rhymes: -ɑmp

tamp m (plural tampen, diminutive tampje n)

1. (nautical) the end of a rope or chain
2. (slang) penis

   Synonym: penis

• tampeloeres

Likely from Dutch tamp.

tamp c

1. The end, or end piece, of a rope

• tamp in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• tamp in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)
• tamp in Svenskt nautiskt lexikon (1920)