sahib
sahib noun: a term of respect for a white European or other man of rank in colonial India.
Noun (1)
sahib (plural sahibs)
- A term of respect for a white European or other man of rank in colonial India.
- One day when the Man's Wife and the Tertium Quid had just arrived in the Cemetery, they saw some coolies breaking ground. They had marked out a full-size grave, and the Tertium Quid asked them whether any Sahib was sick. They said that they did not know; but it was an order that they should dig a...1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 52
- One must never forget that one is a Sahib, and that some day, when examinations are passed, one will command natives.1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter VII, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 177
Noun (2) capitalized: Sahib
Sahib (plural Sahibs)
- Alternative letter-case form of sahib.
sahib meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sahib in Hindi
- a term of respect
- साहिब sāhib
sahib in Tamil
- சாஹிப்
sahib in Marathi
- a term of respect
- साहेब sāheb
sahib in Urdu
- a term of respect
- صاحب sāhib
More languagesFewer languages
- sahib in Bengali
- সাহেব śaheb
- sahib in Telugu
- సాహిబ్
- sahib in Malayalam
- സാഹിബ്
- sahib in Kannada
- ಸಾಹಿಬ್
- sahib in Punjabi
- ਸਾਹਿਬ sāheb, sāhab, sáb
- sahib in Gujarati
- સાહિબ
Examples of sahib in a sentence
- They had marked out a full-size grave, and the Tertium Quid asked them whether any Sahib was sick.1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 52:
- After, went to sahib and packed up sahib's things.1923, Rasool Galwan, Servant of Sahibs, Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, page 25:
Forms of sahib
| plural | sahibs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Sahib |
| plural | Sahibs |
Origin of sahib
From Hindustani صاحب / साहिब (sāhib, “lord”), from Classical Persian صاحب (sāhib), from Arabic صَاحِب (ṣāḥib, “companion”).
Words formed from sahib
Phrases with sahib
Questions about sahib
- What does sahib mean?
- Sahib means a term of respect for a white European or other man of rank in colonial India.
- What is sahib in Hindi?
- Sahib in Hindi is साहिब (sāhib). See Sahib meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sahib in a sentence?
- They had marked out a full-size grave, and the Tertium Quid asked them whether any Sahib was sick.
- What part of speech is sahib?
- Sahib is a noun.
- What is the plural of sahib?
- The plural of sahib is sahibs.
Words near sahib in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sahib (page history and authors); Sahib (page history and authors); sahib (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sahib (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sahib (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sahib (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sahib (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Cite this entry: “sahib.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sahib. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.