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Synonyms

cab

1 American  
[kab] / kæb /

noun

  1. a taxicab.

    Synonyms:
    jitney, hackney, hack
  2. any of various horse-drawn vehicles, as a hansom or brougham, especially one for public hire.

    Synonyms:
    jitney, hackney, hack
  3. the covered or enclosed part of a locomotive, truck, crane, etc., where the operator sits.

  4. the glass-enclosed area of an airport control tower in which the controllers are stationed.


verb (used without object)

cabbed, cabbing
  1. to ride in a taxicab or horse-drawn cab.

    They cabbed to the theater.

cab 2 American  
[kab] / kæb /
Or kab

noun

  1. an ancient Hebrew measure equal to about two quarts.


cab 3 American  
[kab] / kæb /

noun

Chiefly British.
  1. cabbage.


CAB 4 American  
Or C.A.B.
cab 1 British  
/ kæb /

noun

    1. a taxi

    2. ( as modifier )

      a cab rank

  1. the enclosed compartment of a lorry, locomotive, crane, etc, from which it is driven or operated

  2. (formerly) a light horse-drawn vehicle used for public hire

  3. informal the first person, etc, to do or take advantage of something

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

CAB 2 British  

abbreviation

  1. (in Britain) Citizens' Advice Bureau

  2. (in the US) Civil Aeronautics Board

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

cab 3 British  
/ kæb /

noun

  1. an ancient Hebrew measure equal to about 2.3 litres (4 pints)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of cab1

First recorded in 1640–50; short for cabriolet

Origin of cab2

First recorded in 1525–35; from Hebrew qabh

Explanation

A cab is a taxi, a car whose driver you pay to take you where you need to go. It can feel like a competitive sport to hail a cab in New York City. Your cab driver may talk incessantly while she drives you to the airport, or you might ride in a cab that's silent except for the sound of its horn honking at other drivers. You can also call the front part of a truck, where the driver sits, the cab. In the 1820s, the word meant "horse-drawn carriage," short for the French cabriolet, "leap or caper." The Latin root is capreolus, "wild goat."

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Now, he is safely away from that in the control trailer, doing the same job from a virtual cab.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

When metro services stop running, expensive cab journeys are Olha's only option.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Video shows a suited man climbing into the vehicle’s cab, the container lowering, and the truck pulling away.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

Consider when Gail and Otto arrive in Hollywood and hop in a cab driven by Richard Kind.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

So the cab pulled over, and Kerling said goodbye to his friend Leiner.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

"I'm going to give it my all until the end of the season to finish this adventure with CAB in the best possible way."

From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2026

"We found an unexpected chemical complexity, with abundances far higher than predicted by current theoretical models," explains lead author Dr. Ismael García Bernete formerly of Oxford University and now a researcher at CAB.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026

Britain's CAB Payments has taken the rare step of setting a fixed price for its share offering that values it at the lower end of its previously reported range.

From Reuters ● Jun. 30, 2023

In January 1950, the CAB blamed Bridoux for the accident.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2021

If A, B, C are three distinct collinear points, the common part of the segments BCA and CAB is contained in the supplementary segment ABC.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6 "Geodesy" to "Geometry" by Various

Refusing to give up, Foster had a board mix put together of the first performance and cabbed it to the radio station.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2015

Their daughter told them she "cabbed it" but they say they do not know how she actually traveled cross-country or where she has been staying.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2013

On Thursday night, I cabbed it to my goddaughter’s house in Fort Greene.

From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2012

It’s like a slower, 1950s version of the real city across that cool bridge we cabbed over last night.

From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle

So we strolled out easily and cabbed it back to the inn.

From Parkhurst Boys And Other Stories of School Life by Talbot Baines Reed

The day before E3 officially kicks off this year, I’ll be liveblogging the Ubisoft press conference, then cabbing it over to the L.A.

From Forbes ● Jun. 2, 2014

Max is a dreamer; a lonely man whose ideal of running a limo service is still unrealised after 12 years of "temporary" cabbing.

From Time Magazine Archive

I won't 'ave it, even if yer are a cabbing passinger.

From Tom Gerrard by Louis Becke

"We seem destined to consort with the cabbing trade," I remarked; "the last office was over a mews, this place seems to belong to a carriage-builder."

From A Girl Among the Anarchists by Isabel Meredith

"Who's a-goin' to be bullied by any cove because he is a cabbing passinger?" and he gave Blake an almost imperceptible wink.

From Tom Gerrard by Louis Becke

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