dab
see also: DAB
Pronunciation
DAB
Noun
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see also: DAB
Pronunciation
- IPA: /dæb/
From Middle English dabben, probably of gmq - origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba, perhaps ultimately imitative.
The noun is from Middle English dabbe, from the verb.
African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap ("fistbump").
Verbdab (dabs, present participle dabbing; simple past and past participle dabbed)
- (transitive) To press lightly in a repetitive motion with a soft object without rubbing.
- I dabbed my face with a towel.
- (transitive) To apply a substance in this way.
- He dabbed moisturizing liquid on his face.
- To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust.
- 1532-1533, Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer
- to dabbe him in the necke
- 1532-1533, Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer
- (slang) To apply hash oil to a heated surface for the purpose of efficient combustion.
- (dance, intransitive) To perform the dab dance move, by moving both arms to one side of the body parallel with your head.
- 2019, Stormzy, Vossi Bop:
- Look, my brothas don't dab, we just vossi bop
- (bingo) Synonym of daub (to mark a bingo card)
- German: auftupfen
- French: dabber
dab (plural dabs)
- A soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
- (AAVE) A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.
- A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.
- Synonyms: blob
- a dab of glue
- (slang) A small amount of hash oil.
- (chiefly, in the plural, dated, British) Fingerprint.
- (dance) A hip hop dance move in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm, briefly resting their face in the elbow, as if sneezing into their elbow.
- (obsolete) A dabbler.
- German: Taps
dab (not comparable)
Etymology 2Perhaps corrupted from adept.
Noundab (plural dabs)
- One skilful or proficient; an expert; an adept.
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:skilled person
- c. 1759-1770?, Oliver Goldsmith, Essay
- One excels at a plan or the title page, another works away at the body of the book, and the third is a dab at an index.
- 1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘A Collection of Letters’, Juvenilia:
- Indeed I had always heard what a dab he was at a Love-letter.
Late Middle English dabbe, of unknown origin; perhaps related to sense 1 as in "a soft mass dabbed down."
Noundab (plural dabs)
A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder. - (US) A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.
dab
- (obsolete, costers) Bad.
- Synonyms: trosseno
- Antonyms: doog, doogheno
DAB
Noun
- Init of digital audio broadcasting
- (Hong Kong politics) Init of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (a pro-Beijing political party in the HKSAR)
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
