dab
A soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blowA soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
» My girlfriend is doing a dab.
Meaning
10 sensesA soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
Taps
A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.
A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.
a dab of glue
Klacks, Klecks
A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.
(slang)A small amount of hash oil.
(UK, dated, in the plural)Fingerprint.
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.
a dance move in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm and the elbow in a gesture that has been noted to resemble sneezing
One who is skilful or proficient; an expert; an adept.
A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder.
(US)A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.
(obsolete)A dabbler.
Examples
15 sentencesMy girlfriend is doing a dab.
Tom did a dab of rosin.
Tom is a dab hand at cooking.
Jo is a dab hand at wallpapering.
ruДжо — мастер клеить обои.
deJo versteht sich aufs Tapezieren.
Would you like to do a dab?
Translations
1 languagesBy meaning 2
Origin
From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to OlFrom Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative. 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”).
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. It may be a profound alteration of adept, 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.
Late Middle English dabbe, of unknown origin; perhaps related to sense 1 (“to press against lightly”) as in "a soft mass dabbed down."
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