Meaning and Origin
What does the name Tab mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Tab
User Submitted Origins
English
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International Interest
Also see international interest
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
noun Tab
Senses
- The flap or latchet of a shoe fastened with a string or a buckle.
- A tag. See Tag, 2.
- A loop for pulling or lifting something.
- A border of lace or other material, worn on the inner front edge of ladies' bonnets.
- A loose pendent part of a lady's garment; esp., one of a series of pendent squares forming an edge or border.
- a small projecting piece of a file folder, file card, or similar sheet used in a filing system, on which a notation is written to permit convenient search for the folder, card, etc.
- a bill or check for some purchase, as in a restaurant; as, the salesman will pick up the tab .
- a key on a typewriter or computer keyboard which advances the carriage or curser to the next (preset) tab position; -- used especially to type or print text or numbers in columns.
Etymology: Etymol. uncertain
Other Dictionary Sources
- A dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet
- A short strip of material attached to or projecting from something in order to facilitate opening or identifying or handling it ("pull the tab to open the can", "files with a red tab will be stored separately", "the collar has a tab with a button hole", and "the filing cards were organized by cards having indexed tabs")
- The key on a typewriter or a word processor that causes a tabulation
- Sensationalist journalism
- The bill in a restaurant
Wiktionary
First attested 1607, of uncertain origin.
- A small flap or strip of material attached to something, for holding, manipulation, identification, etc.
- (slang) An ear.
- (by extension, graphical user interface) A navigational widget, resembling a physical tab, for switching between documents or sets of controls.
- (informal) A tablet, especially one containing illicit drugs.
- (British Army, military slang) A fast march or run with full kit.
Apocopation (shortening) of tabulation.
- (informal) A restaurant bill.
- (slang) Credit account, e.g., in a shop or bar; slate
- Put this round on my , will you, barman.
- Short for tabulator.
- (computing) A space character that extends to the next aligned column, traditionally used for tabulation.
Likely to have been formed by clipping the Geordie pronunciation of the word tobacco or alternatively from the brand name Ogden's Tabs.
- (Britain, regional, Geordie and Mackem) cigarette.
- Giv'is a man!
Clipping of tablature
- A form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, commonly used for stringed instruments.
Clipping of Cantab, from Latin Cantabrigia (“Cambridge”).
- (British slang) A student of Cambridge University.
Clipping of tabloid
- (colloquial) A tabloid newspaper.
tab was also found in the following language(s): Kurdish, Lojban, and Volapük