tamp

/tæmp/

/tæmp/

Other forms: tamping; tamped; tamps

To tamp is to push or pack down a loose or granular material. If you work as a barista, you'll learn to tamp espresso grounds before running hot water through them.

Before a road is paved or a patio is laid out, workers will tamp gravel to provide a sturdy, level base. Old-fashioned, muzzle-loading guns had to be filled with gunpowder, which the user would need to tamp firmly before firing. The tool used to do the tamping is sometimes also called a tamp.

Definitions of tamp

1. verb

   press down tightly
   “tamp the coffee grinds in the container to make espresso”

   synonyms: pack, tamp down

   type of:

   compact, compress, pack together

   make more compact by or as if by pressing
2. noun

   a tool for tamping (e.g., for tamping tobacco into a pipe bowl or a charge into a drill hole etc.)
   synonyms: tamper, tamping bar

   types:

   stemmer

   a miner's tamping bar for ramming packing in over a blasting charge

   type of:

   tool

   an implement used in the practice of a vocation
3. verb

   keep under control; keep in check