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Tab

//tæb// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.

    "insert tab A into slot B"

  2. 2
    A restaurant bill. Canada, US, informal

    "to pick up the tab"

  3. 3
    A cigarette. Geordie, Mackem

    "Lend us a tab!"

  4. 4
    A form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, commonly used for stringed instruments.
  5. 5
    A student of Cambridge University.

    "You should have been there---it was a good race. Just to clarify matters for the hard of understanding, the tabs led for about 1500m before turning to shrapnel, and Oxford eventually won by 3/4 length."

Show 17 more definitions
  1. 6
    A tabloid newspaper. colloquial

    "By 1926 the tabloid mania was at full tilt, and the tabs in New York went at each other with hammer and tong."

  2. 7
    A tablet, especially one containing illicit drugs. informal

    "Tonight the kids will go out and party down in a more righteous mode. Alcohol and not a few tabs of X will be ingested. Club music will throb through big speakers."

  3. 8
    A tableau curtain. informal
  4. 9
    A key on a computer keyboard that typically inserts a tab or moves the input focus.
  5. 10
    Alternative letter-case form of tab (“student at Cambridge”). alt-of
  6. 11
    a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet wordnet
  7. 12
    An ear. slang
  8. 13
    Credit account, e.g., in a shop or bar; slate. Canada, US, informal

    "to start a tab"

  9. 14
    a short strip of material attached to or projecting from something in order to facilitate opening or identifying or handling it wordnet
  10. 15
    A navigational widget, resembling a physical tab, for switching between documents or sets of controls. broadly
  11. 16
    The cost or bill for anything. broadly

    "Moreover, at a tab of $9 million, the system's price is about $1 million less than a conventional heating-cooling plant […]"

  12. 17
    the key on a typewriter or a word processor that causes a tabulation wordnet
  13. 18
    The page or form associated with such a navigational widget.

    "How many tabs are open in your Web browser?"

  14. 19
    A space character that extends to the next aligned column, traditionally used for tabulation.

    "No no no no I don't, it's not hate, hate is a strong word, truth be told I do have a slight preference for tabs but that's only because I'm anal and because I prefer precision."

  15. 20
    sensationalist journalism wordnet
  16. 21
    A fast march or run with full kit. British-Army, slang
  17. 22
    the bill in a restaurant wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To affix with tabs; to label. transitive
  2. 2
    To use the Tab key on a computer to advance the cursor or move the input focus, or on a typewriter to advance the carriage.

    "You can prevent a control from getting the focus when the user is tabbing between controls by settings its IsTabStop property to False."

Etymology

Etymology 1

First attested 1607, of uncertain origin.

Etymology 2

First attested 1607, of uncertain origin.

Etymology 3

Apocopation (shortening) of (variously) tabulate, tabulator, or tabulation.

Etymology 4

Apocopation (shortening) of (variously) tabulate, tabulator, or tabulation.

Etymology 5

Likely to have been formed by clipping the Geordie pronunciation of the word tobacco or alternatively from the brand name Ogden's Tabs.

Etymology 6

Clipping of tablature.

Etymology 7

Clipping of Cantab, from Cantabrigian, from Latin Cantabrigia (“Cambridge”).

Etymology 8

Clipping of tabloid.

Etymology 9

Clipping of tablet.

See also for "tab"

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