Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

dab

/dæb/ verb, noun, adverb, adjective

Forms dabs dabbing dabbed

  1. verb (transitive) To press lightly in a repetitive motion with a soft object without rubbing. “I dabbed my face with a towel.”
  2. verb (transitive) To apply a substance in this way. “The nurse will dab some ointment on that gash.”
  3. verb To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust.
  4. verb (slang) To apply hash oil to a heated surface for the purpose of efficient combustion.
  5. verb (dance, intransitive) To perform the dab dance move; to move both arms, parallel with one's head, to either side of the body.
  6. verb (bingo) Synonym of daub (to mark a bingo card)
  7. noun A soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
  8. noun (African-American Vernacular) A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.
  9. noun A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance. “a dab of glue”
  10. noun (slang) A small amount of hash oil.
  11. noun (chiefly in the plural, dated, UK) Fingerprint.
  12. noun (dance) A hip hop dance move in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm, briefly resting their face in the elbow, as if sneezing into their elbow.
  13. noun (obsolete) A dabbler.
  14. adverb With a dab, or sudden contact.
  15. noun One who is skilful or proficient; an expert; an adept.
  16. noun A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder.
  17. noun (US) A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.
  18. adjective (obsolete, costermongers) Bad.

Synonyms

daub bump pat spat tit blob ace atom thought atomy aught bissel continental bit crumb glimpse damn dash diddly glint tap splash splatter swab swob

Antonyms

doog doogheno

Etymology

From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Compare also with Middle Dutch dabben (“to pinch, knead, fumble, dabble”) (Dutch dabben (“(of a horse) to stamp with the forelegs”)), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), possibly German tappen (“to fumble, grope”).
The noun is from Middle English dabbe (“a strike, blow”), from the verb. Related to tap. Compare also drub, dub.
African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap (“fistbump”).

Unknown. First use in print was in 1691, in The Athenian Mercury; it is also found in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew of 1698; see quotations for both. Originally used in the cant of criminals, and later in school slang. It may be a profound alteration of adept, likely from deliberate slangy usage thereof (rather than natural sound-change), which if true would give such earlier forms as *adep (or *dept) > *dep > *deb.

Late Middle English dabbe, of unknown origin; perhaps related to sense 1 (“to press against lightly”) as in "a soft mass dabbed down."

Back slang for bad.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A skillful hand; a dabster; an expert. [Colloq.]
  2. noun A name given to several species of Pleuronectes . TheAmerican rough dab is Hippoglossoides platessoides.
  3. verb To strike or touch gently, as with a soft or moist substance; to tap; hence, to besmear with a dabber.
  4. verb To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust. "To dab him in the neck." Sir T. More.

Etymology [Perh. corrupted fr. adept.]

Etymology [Perh. so named from its quickness in diving beneath the sand. Cf. Dabchick.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dab”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details