cab
noun
a taxicab.
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cab
1 American
[kab]
/ kæb /
noun
-
a taxicab.
-
any of various horse-drawn vehicles, as a hansom or brougham, especially one for public hire.
-
the covered or enclosed part of a locomotive, truck, crane, etc., where the operator sits.
-
the glass-enclosed area of an airport control tower in which the controllers are stationed.
verb (used without object)
cabbed,
cabbing
cab
2
American
[kab]
/ kæb /
Or
kab
noun
cab
3
American
[kab]
/ kæb /
noun
Chiefly British.
CAB
4
American
Or
C.A.B.
cab
1
British
/ kæb /
noun
-
-
a taxi
-
( as modifier )
a cab rank
-
-
the enclosed compartment of a lorry, locomotive, crane, etc, from which it is driven or operated
-
(formerly) a light horse-drawn vehicle used for public hire
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informal the first person, etc, to do or take advantage of something
CAB
2
British
abbreviation
-
(in Britain) Citizens' Advice Bureau
-
(in the US) Civil Aeronautics Board
cab
3
British
/ kæb /
noun
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."
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:
I hailed a passing cab and we sped the dozen blocks to the restaurant, which glowed in the darkness ahead like a lighthouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
Uber has won its bid to throw out claims worth about £340m brought by thousands of London black cab drivers and two former private hire firms.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Software engineer Simon Martin, 44, who lives in Ancoats, recounted how a cab driver told him he would have hesitated once to pick him up, when the area was riddled with crime.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
My cab driver effusively recounted sneaking in to see Metallica at Ruthie’s Inn in Berkeley in 1983.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
John Masters was sitting in the cab with the door open, looking at a map on his laptop.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
"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
"We're being inundated with clients who are really concerned about their bills," said William Jones from CAB.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2022
Abolishing the CAB in 1978 reduced fares and increased flights.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2018
The man said nothing more and Terence went on: "Now, consider this triangle as two triangles, BAC and CAB."
From Fairies and Folk of Ireland by Sydney Richmond Burleigh
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
To the unprejudiced observer Melbourne is the worst cabbed city in the world, or amongst the worst.
From Recollections With Photogravure Portrait of the Author and a number of Original Letters, of which one by George Meredith and another by Robert Louis Stevenson are reproduced in facsimile by David Christie Murray
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
To be sure, vettura driving is not like cabbing, and Gaetano was in the habit of getting out often and walking up the hills, thus exercising his liver.
From Hawthorne and His Circle by Julian Hawthorne
I went on cabbing it for a day or so, intending to keep at it until I could save enough to take me back to America.
From A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
And then I'll tell you I'm tired of this cabbing cruise, and I want to get to work again.
From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
