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Thu 13 Aug, 2015 04:28 am
Check this out please.
Customer : Oh I have no money. I think I should buy them later.
Saler : That's okay. You can get them now and pay later.
I mean, it's possible to run a tap.
Customer : Okay, then. Give them to me.
The conversation is just what I made up, but not the phrase 'run a tap'.
I got the idiom from a book, though I haven't heard any native speaker say that.
I looked up lots of online dictionaries to verify its meaning in vain.
Simply, is it a common expression - run a tap?
Say, you've got no money at all now,
and you wonder if you could pay later.
Then you ask,
"Is it possible to run a tap?"
Is it widely used and worth memorizing
or many native speakers might find it rather weird or strange?
Please help me find that out.
Thank you.
@SMickey,
The expression here is "run a tab" which means purchase on credit.
@SMickey,
Think it's "run a tab." Like the bit in "Back to the Future pt. 2"
Not too common any more. Amounts to credit, and nowadays without verification of ability to pay off a tab stores and businesses aren't likely to give strange customers such things any more.
@SMickey,
"Run a tab" is a very common phrase. Every time I go to a pun or bar, the bartender would ask that or I would ask the waiter that and use that very phrase. It's as common as the nose on my face.
"run a tab" means to not pay immediately. A 'running tab' goes on thru the nite. Drinks and ordered and served and even food. At the end, the customer is given the bill. They can pay cash or credit card.
Sometimes a credit card is given to the bartender for keeping once it's announced that they want to "run a tab", just in case the customer walks out after ordering a few drinks.
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