dab

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• /dæb/
  Play
• US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play
• rhymes with -æb
  Play
• CMU ARPABET: D AE1 B Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  Play

Back slang for bad.

From 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”). 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”).

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."

58 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Bulgarian: потупване (potupvane) — soft tap
• Czech: ťuknutí — soft tap
• Finnish: kopautus — soft tap
• Finnish: nokkaisu — soft tap
• German: Taps — soft tap
• Greek: άγγιγμα (ángigma) — soft tap
• Swedish: dutta — soft tap
• Bulgarian: мазка (mazka) — small amount, blob
• Czech: kapka — small amount, blob
• Czech: trošička — small amount, blob
• Czech: drobet — small amount, blob
• Czech: troška — small amount, blob
• Czech: krapet — small amount, blob
• Finnish: nokare — small amount, blob
• Finnish: tippa — small amount, blob
• German: Klacks — small amount, blob
• German: Klecks — small amount, blob
• Greek: μικροποσότητα (mikroposótita) — small amount, blob
• Irish: daba — small amount, blob
• Swedish: klick — small amount, blob
• Bulgarian: майстор (majstor) — expert; adept
• Bulgarian: специалист (specialist) — expert; adept
• Chinese Mandarin: 高手 (gāoshǒu) — expert; adept
• Greek: μάστορας (mástoras) — expert; adept
• Swedish: baddare — expert; adept
• Bulgarian: писия (pisija) — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Catalan: limanda — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Chinese Mandarin: 比目魚 /比目鱼 (bǐmùyú) — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Chinese Mandarin: 黃蓋鰈 /黄盖鲽 — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Faroese: áarskrubba — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Galician: mendo — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Greek: λιμάνδη η κοινή (limándi i koiní) — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Irish: daba — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Norman: cat — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Scots: sautie — flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae
• Bulgarian: потупвам (potupvam) — softly tap
• Chinese Mandarin: 輕觸 /轻触 — softly tap
• Czech: klepat — softly tap
• Czech: poklepat — softly tap
• Czech: poťukat — softly tap
• Czech: ťuknout — softly tap
• Esperanto: tapeti — softly tap
• French: tapoter — softly tap
• French: tamponner — softly tap
• German: tupfen — softly tap
• Portuguese: tocar de leve — softly tap
• Bulgarian: цапвам (capvam) — apply softly tapping
• Bulgarian: мацвам (macvam) — apply softly tapping
• Chinese Mandarin: 敷 (fū) — apply softly tapping
• Czech: jemně nanést — apply softly tapping
• Esperanto: dabi — apply softly tapping
• German: auftupfen — apply softly tapping
• Portuguese: aplicar de leve — apply softly tapping
• Ukrainian: примо́чувати (prymóčuvaty) — apply softly tapping
• Ukrainian: примочи́ти (prymočýty) — apply softly tapping
• Dutch: dabben — perform the dance move
• French: dabber — perform the dance move
• Japanese: ダブする (dabu suru) — perform the dance move