Word.ws English Dictionary

duct tape

duct tape noun: a generally gray waterproof adhesive tape used for many purposes and easy to cut with the hands.

duct tape: a generally gray waterproof adhesive tape used for many purposes and easy to cut with the hands
Image: Evan-Amos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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.
    • I used duct tape to cover the hole in a leaky pipe.
    Synonyms:
    duck tape, gray tape

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.
    • There are Schimmel Sister stickers, and Navajo Nation stickers, Cherokee Nation stickers, Idle No More, and AIM flags duct-taped to antennas.2018, Tommy Orange, “Interlude”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 136

duct tape meaning in Arabic

duct tape in Arabic

multipurpose waterproof tape
شَرِيط لَاصِق šarīṭ lāṣiq

Synonyms of duct tape

Forms of duct tape

Noun
pluralduct tapes
alternative formduct-tape
Verb
third-person singular presentduct tapes
present participleduct taping
past participleduct taped
pastduct taped

Origin of duct tape

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

Questions about duct tape

What does duct tape mean?
Duct tape means a generally gray waterproof adhesive tape used for many purposes and easy to cut with the hands.
What is duct tape in Arabic?
Duct tape in Arabic is شَرِيط لَاصِق (šarīṭ lāṣiq). See Duct tape meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is duct tape?
Duct tape can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of duct tape?
The plural of duct tape is duct tapes.

Words near duct tape in the dictionary

  1. duct engine
  2. duct engines
  3. duct flute
  4. duct flutes
  5. duct of Wirsung
  6. duct tape
  7. duct taped
  8. duct tapes
  9. duct taping
  10. duct-tape
  11. ductal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duct tape (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-duct tape.wav.

Cite this entry: “duct tape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duct_tape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.