call a cab
call a cab verb: to raise one's arm to maintain balance while riding.
Verb
call a cab (third-person singular simple present calls a cab, present participle calling a cab, simple past and past participle called a cab)
- To raise one's arm to maintain balance while riding.
- An habitually raised arm, termed 'calling a cab', was the trademark of amateurism.1994, Dick Francis, Wild Horses, page 137
- Drawings of races sixty years ago show the riders trying to avoid catching their horses in the mouth by stretching forward with one arm and lifting the other hand backwards off the reins into the position known as 'calling a cab'.
Although it is no longer the normal and recognized thing to do...2002, Frank R. Scatoni, Finished Lines, page 181
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see call, cab. (to summon a taxi)
Forms of call a cab
| third-person singular present | calls a cab |
|---|---|
| present participle | calling a cab |
| past participle | called a cab |
| past | called a cab |
Origin of call a cab
(raise arm while riding): From the similarity to the raised-arm gesture used to summon a taxi.
Questions about call a cab
- What does call a cab mean?
- Call a cab means to raise one's arm to maintain balance while riding.
- What part of speech is call a cab?
- Call a cab is a verb.
- What is the past tense of call a cab?
- The past tense of call a cab is called a cab.
Words near call a cab in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: call a cab (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “call a cab.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/call_a_cab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.