Word.ws English Dictionary

shabbing

shabbing is the present participle and gerund of shab.

Meaning of shab

Verb (1)

shab (third-person singular simple present shabs, present participle shabbing, simple past and past participle shabbed)

  1. (obsolete) To scratch; to rub.
    • I have shabbed him off purely1698, George Farquhar, Love and a Bottle

Verb (2)

shab (third-person singular simple present shabs, present participle shabbing, simple past and past participle shabbed)

  1. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) To move (something, away or out of the way), to drive off.
    • Certain Nipnets intended to have sheltred themselves under Vncas; but he perceiving it would be distastful to the English, soon shab'd them off.1677, W. Howard, Narrative, postscript, T 3 b
  2. (UK, slang, obsolete outside historical fiction) To skulk or sneak away.
    • […] and so the fat Parson shabb'd off,[…]1731, The Windsor Medley: Being a Choice Collection of Several Curious and Valuable Pieces in Prose and Verse: that Were Handed about in Print and Manuscript, During the Stay of the Court at...

See all 5 meanings of shab

Questions about shabbing

What is shabbing the present participle and gerund of?
Shabbing is the present participle and gerund of shab.

Words near shabbing in the dictionary

  1. shabbify
  2. shabbifying
  3. shabbily
  4. shabbiness
  5. shabbinesses
  6. shabbing
  7. shabble
  8. shabbles
  9. shabbos
  10. Shabbos elevator
  11. Shabbos elevators

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shabbing (page history and authors); shab (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.

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Cite this entry: “shabbing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shabbing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.