Word.ws English Dictionary

tab

/tæb/

tab noun: a small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.

Noun (1)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. A small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.
    • insert tab A into slot B
    • "His name was written upon a tab within it - Maple White, Lake Avenue, Detroit, Michigan."1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
    Antonyms:
    slot
  2. (slang) An ear.
  3. (broadly) A navigational widget, resembling a physical tab, for switching between documents or sets of controls.
  4. (broadly) The page or form (for example, on a web browser or file manager) associated with such a navigational widget.
    • How many tabs are open on your browser right now?
    • That’s the relief I feel when clearing all the tabs in my internet browser. Clicking the crosses like a long line of kisses finally indulged.2020 December 11, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Is your browser window full of open tabs? Time for a digital declutter”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  5. (British-Army, slang) A fast march or run with full kit.

Verb (1)

tab (third-person singular simple present tabs, present participle tabbing, simple past and past participle tabbed)

  1. (transitive) To affix with tabs; to label.

Noun (2)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (Canada, US, informal) A restaurant bill.
    • to pick up the tab
  2. (Canada, US, informal) Credit account, e.g., in a shop or bar; slate.
    • to start a tab
    • Put this round on my tab, please, barman.
  3. (broadly) The cost or bill for anything.
    • Moreover, at a tab of $9 million, the system's price is about $1 million less than a conventional heating-cooling plant […]1984, Time, volume 123, number 1
  4. A space character that extends to the next aligned column, traditionally used for tabulation.
    • No no no no I don't, it's not hate, hate is a strong word, truth be told I do have a slight preference for tabs but that's only because I'm anal and because I prefer precision.2016 May 29, Carson Mell, “Bachmanity Insanity”, in Silicon Valley, season 3, episode 6, spoken by Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch)
    Synonyms:
    tabulator

Verb (2)

tab (third-person singular simple present tabs, present participle tabbing, simple past and past participle tabbed)

  1. To use the Tab key on a computer to advance the cursor or move the input focus, or on a typewriter to advance the carriage.
    • You can prevent a control from getting the focus when the user is tabbing between controls by settings its IsTabStop property to False.2010, Chris Anderson, Pro Business Applications with Silverlight 4, page 210

Noun (3)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (Geordie, Mackem) A cigarette.
    • Lend us a tab!

Noun (4)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. A form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, commonly used for stringed instruments.

Noun (5)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (Oxbridge slang) A student of Cambridge University.
    • You should have been there---it was a good race. Just to clarify matters for the hard of understanding, the tabs led for about 1500m before turning to shrapnel, and Oxford eventually won by 3/4 length.1995 January 20, Paul Thomas, “Re: >Re: Those 'orrible Tabs”, in rec.sport.rowing (Usenet)
    • Before Rachel gets in with a stab at the Tabs' coxing efforts, may I say that my experience of coxes on the Isis is somewhat similar.1995 February 7, "Laser Cartridge" [username], “Re: Cambridge News, again.”, in rec.sport.rowing (Usenet)

Noun (6)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (colloquial) A tabloid newspaper.
    • By 1926 the tabloid mania was at full tilt, and the tabs in New York went at each other with hammer and tong.1999, George H. Douglas, The Golden Age of the Newspaper, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 229
    • The tabloids were able to spend much of the week confronting their demons. Maxine Carr's request to be released from prison early prompted the tabs to let her know what they thought of her suggestion.2004 January 16, Michael Hann, “The tabloid week”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Noun (7)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (informal) A tablet, especially one containing illicit drugs.
    • Tonight the kids will go out and party down in a more righteous mode. Alcohol and not a few tabs of X will be ingested. Club music will throb through big speakers.2008, Stephen King, Graduation Weekend

Noun (8)

tab (plural tabs)

  1. (informal) A tableau curtain.

Noun (9) capitalized: Tab

Tab (plural Tabs)

  1. A key on a computer keyboard that typically inserts a tab or moves the input focus.

Noun (10) capitalized: Tab

Tab (plural Tabs)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of tab (“student at Cambridge”).

tab meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tab in Hindi

टैब

tab in Tamil

கீற்று

tab in Marathi

टॅब

tab in Urdu

ٹیب
More languagesFewer languages
tab in Bengali
ট্যাব, ট্যাবটি, ট্যাব করা
tab in Telugu
ట్యాబ్, టాబ్, ట్యాబు
tab in Malayalam
ടാബ്, ടാബിലേക്ക്, ടാബിലേക്കുള്ള
tab in Kannada
ಟ್ಯಾಬ್, ಟಾಬ್, ಟ್ಯಾಬ್ಗೆ
tab in Punjabi
ਟੈਬ, ਟੈੱਬ
tab in Gujarati
ટેબ, ટૅબ
tab in Odia
ଟ୍ଯ଼ାବ, ଟ୍ଯ଼ାବ୍, ଟ୍ଯ଼ାବଟି
tab in Nepali
ट्याब

Examples of tab in a sentence

  • He pulls off his belt, cursing as the studs catch in the tabs of his jeans.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “Station to Station”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 333:
  • We lifted the tabs on the cans and poured the brew carefully into glasses.2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 18:
  • As he fished a Visa credit card out of his green leather wallet, the bartender yelled out a question over the music: “Do you want to start a tab?” Mr.2025 May 31, Paula Mejía, “Gen Z Doesn’t Want to Start a Bar Tab”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company...
  • Plus, there's always been a healthy rivalry between the tabs and us, but I'm sure this has nothing to do with it ;-)1998 January 17, whitey [username], “Re: Tab bashing (was University Challenge - Its pish)”, in rec.arts.tv.uk.misc (Usenet):

All 40 example sentences with tab

Synonyms of tab

Antonyms

Forms of tab

Noun
pluraltabs
alternative formTab
pluralTabs
Verb
third-person singular presenttabs
present participletabbing
past participletabbed
pasttabbed

Plural of tab: tabs

Origin of tab

First attested 1607, of uncertain origin.

Apocopation (shortening) of (variously) tabulate, tabulator, or tabulation.

Likely to have been formed by clipping the Geordie pronunciation of the word tobacco or alternatively from the brand name Ogden's Tabs.

Words formed from tab

Phrases with tab

Words that rhyme with tab

17 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tab

What does tab mean?
Tab means a small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.
What is tab in Hindi?
Tab in Hindi is टैब. See Tab meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tab in a sentence?
He pulls off his belt, cursing as the studs catch in the tabs of his jeans.
What part of speech is tab?
Tab can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tab?
Tab is pronounced /tæb/.
What is the plural of tab?
The plural of tab is tabs.

Words near tab in the dictionary

  1. taarab
  2. taarof
  3. taars
  4. taas
  5. Taastrup
  6. tab
  7. tab complete
  8. tab control
  9. tab controls
  10. tab index
  11. tab indexes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tab (page history and authors); Tab (page history and authors); tab (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tab (Nepali, 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tab.ogg.

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