dab

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dab/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dæb/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ab, -æb

From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative.^[1] Compare also with Middle Dutch dabben (“to pinch, knead, fumble, dabble”) (Dutch dabben (“(of a horse) to stamp with the forelegs”)), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), possibly German tappen (“to fumble, grope”).

The noun is from Middle English dabbe (“a strike, blow”), from the verb. Related to tap. Compare also drub, dub.

African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap (“fistbump”).

dab (third-person singular simple present dabs, present participle dabbing, simple past and past participle dabbed)

1. (transitive) To press lightly in a repetitive motion with a soft object without rubbing.

   I dabbed my face with a towel.

   Dab the tears from your eyes.

2. (transitive) To apply a substance in this way.

   The nurse will dab some ointment on that gash.

3. 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

4. (slang) To apply hash oil to a heated surface for the purpose of efficient combustion.
5. (dance, intransitive) To perform the dab dance move; to move both arms, parallel with one's head, to either side of the body.
   • 2019, Stormzy, “Vossi Bop”:

     Look, my bruddas don't dab, we just vossi bop

6. (bingo) Synonym of daub (to mark a bingo card)

dab (plural dabs)

1. A soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.

   Synonyms: bump, pat, spat, tit

   • 1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend‎^[2]:

     I promise you nothing,' said the dolls' dressmaker, dabbing two dabs at him with her needle, as if she put out both his eyes.

   • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 42:

     “It was the most absurd kiss. I don't believe he'd ever kissed a woman in his life before. I threw my head back, and it was a sort of slidy, pecking dab, just on the end of the chin — here.” Mrs. Hauksbee tapped her masculine little chin with her fan.

   • 1917, Robert Hichens, In the Wilderness‎^[3]:

     Then the minute feet made feeble dabs, or stabs, at the atmosphere; the tiny fists doubled themselves and wandered to and fro as if in search of the enemy.

2. (African-American Vernacular) A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.

   Coordinate terms: dap, fist bump, high five

   • 2006, Greta X, Angela Pearson, Whipsdom‎^[4], page 75:

     She gave a few more dabs to his buttocks. “There. By the time you've made love to me those weals will have dried up.”

   • 2010, Adrianne Byrd, Body Heat‎^[5], page 177:

     The men gave each other dabs and another bear hug.

   • 2010, De'nesha Diamond, Hustlin' Divas‎^[6], page 197:

     I step closer to Profit and draw in a deep, steadying breath while the brothers exchange dabs. “What's up, fam? I see you finally made it.”

3. A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.

   Synonyms: blob; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   a dab of glue

   1. (slang) A small amount of hash oil.
4. (chiefly in the plural, dated, British) Fingerprint.
   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 132:

     One had Glash's dabs on it and a half-inch of Macallan at the bottom.

5. (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.
6. (obsolete) A dabbler.

   Synonyms: amateur, dilettante

• dab pen
• poor dab
• smack-dab

• dap
• dob
• tap

• Irish: daba

dab (not comparable)

1. With a dab, or sudden contact.

• daub

Unknown. First use in print was in 1691, in The Athenian Mercury; it is also found in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew of 1698; see quotations for both. Originally used in the cant of criminals, and later in school slang.^[2][3] It may be a profound alteration of adept,^[3] likely from deliberate slangy usage thereof (rather than natural sound-change), which if true would give such earlier forms as *adep (or *dept) > *dep > *deb.

dab (plural dabs)

1. One who is skilful or proficient; an expert; an adept.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:skilled person

   • 1691, John Dunton, editor, The Athenian Mercury‎^[7], volume 4, number 3, London, Queſt[ion] 8, page 2, column 2:

     for little Urchin as he is, he‘s ſuch a Dab at his Bow and Arrows‘ that ne‘re a Finsbury Archer of ‘em all can pretend to come near him.

   • c. 1698, B. E., compiler, A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, London: W. Hawes, DA, page 53, column 1:

     Dab, c. expert exquiſite in Roguery a Rumdab, c. a very Dextrous fellow at fileing , thieving, Cheating, Sharping, sc. Heii a Dab at it, He is well vers'd in it.

   • 1869 [1759], David Mather Masson, The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, The Globe Edition, London: Macmillan & Co., reprint of The Bee: A Select Collection of Essays on The Most Interesting and Entertaining Subjects by Oliver Goldsmith, page 353:

     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.

   • 1790, Jane Austen, “A Collection of Letters”, in Love and Freindship ^[sic] (manuscript), page 149; first published in J. R. Sanders, Love & Freindship and Other Early Works, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1922:

     I hope he will like my answer; it is as good a one as I can write though nothing to his; Indeed I had always heard what a dab he was at a Love-letter.

• dab hand
• dab-handed
• dabster

Late Middle English dabbe, of unknown origin; perhaps related to sense 1 (“to press against lightly”) as in "a soft mass dabbed down."^[1]

dab (plural dabs)

2. A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder.
3. (US) A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.

• → Irish: daba

Back slang for bad.

dab (comparative more dab, superlative most dab)

1. (obsolete, costermongers) Bad.

   Synonym: trosseno

   Antonyms: doog, doogheno

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Habits and Amusements of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor‎^[8], volume 1, page 11:

     Business topics are discussed in a most peculiar style. One man takes the pipe from his mouth and says, "Bill made a doogheno hit this morning." "Jem," says another, to a man just entering, "you'll stand a top o' reeb?" "On," answers Jem, "I've had a trosseno tol, and have been doing dab."

   • 2012, Anthony Quinn, The Streets, →ISBN, page 33:

     One afternoon, arriving at his stall later than usual, I said, almost unknowingly, 'A doogheno or a dabheno?' Jo, who had often chaffed me for my awkward mimicking of coster language, didn't even look up from peeling his apple. 'Dab,' he said, with a little shake of his head.

• dab on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dab (dance) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Oxford English Dictionary (1989)
• “dab”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• dab bong, dab rig, dabchick (etymologically relation unclear)

• ABD, ADB, Abd., BDA, D.B.A., DBA, abd., bad, d/b/a, dba

Borrowed from English dab.

• IPA^(key): /dɛp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dab
• Rhymes: -ɛp

dab m (uncountable)

1. (dance) the dab (hip-hop dance move)

• dabben

• IPA^(key): [ˈdap̚]
• Hyphenation: dab

From English dub, a shortening of the word double.

dab (plural dab-dab)

1. dub: the replacement of a voice part in a movie or cartoon, particularly with a translation; an instance of dubbing

   Synonyms: alih suara, sulih suara

From Arabic ضَبّ (ḍabb), from Proto-Semitic *ṣ́abb-.

dab (plural dab-dab)

1. dabb lizard, Egyptian mastigure, Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard, Leptien's mastigure, Egyptian uromastyx, or Egyptian dabb lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia)

   Synonym: kadal gurun

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

dab (plural dab-dab)

1. a kind of mat measuring approximately 2 m, made of woven pandan leaves that are connected by stitching

• “dab” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• dieb

From Arabic ذَابَ (ḏāba).

• IPA^(key): /daːp/

dab (imperfect jdub, verbal noun dewbien or dwib or dwieb) (intransitive)

1. to melt (become liquid, especially through warmth)
2. to disappear
3. to become emaciated
4. to show tender feelings

dab m

1. fire
2. firearm

dab

1. to trap
2. to ensnare

• Abdirahman Abdillahi Farah "Barwaago" (1995) “dab”, in A Modern Somali-English Dictionary, Ottawa: Ottawa Catholic School Board, →ISBN, page 89
• Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “dab”, in Qaamuuska Af-Soomaliga‎^[9], Rome: RomaTrE-Press, →ISBN, page 167

dab

1. romanization of 𒁳 (dab)

• IPA^(key): /da˥/

From Proto-Hmong-Mien *qlaŋ (“neck”); related to Old Chinese 頸 (OC *keŋʔ, *ɡeŋ, “neck”).^[1]

dab

1. (in compounds) neck or other narrow object

From Proto-Hmong *qraŋᴬ (“spirit, ghost”).^[2]

dab

1. (evil) spirit, considered responsible for epileptic attacks among other things
2. demon
3. monster

From Proto-Hmong *qroŋᴬ (“trough”).^[2]

dab (classifier: lub)

1. a trough, a hollowed out length of log etc.

• Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary‎^[10], SEAP Publications, →ISBN, pages 28-9.

Cognate with English dap.

• IPA^(key): /dab/

dab

1. dash, slap
   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page 96:

     To his sweethearth, an smack lick a dab of a brough.

     To his sweetheart, and smacked like a slap of a shoe.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 33