TAB (tabbed, tabbing)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: tabbed    , tabbing   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tab mean? 

• TAB (noun)
  The noun TAB has 5 senses:

1. the bill in a restaurant

2. sensationalist journalism

3. the key on a typewriter or a word processor that causes a tabulation

4. a short strip of material attached to or projecting from something in order to facilitate opening or identifying or handling it

5. a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet

  Familiarity information: TAB used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAB (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The bill in a restaurant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

check; chit; tab

Context example:

he asked the waiter for the check

Hypernyms ("tab" is a kind of...):

account; bill; invoice (an itemized statement of money owed for goods shipped or services rendered)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sensationalist journalism

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

tab; tabloid; yellow journalism

Hypernyms ("tab" is a kind of...):

journalism; news media (newspapers and magazines collectively)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The key on a typewriter or a word processor that causes a tabulation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

tab; tab key

Hypernyms ("tab" is a kind of...):

key (a lever (as in a keyboard) that actuates a mechanism when depressed)

Holonyms ("tab" is a part of...):

typewriter keyboard (a keyboard for manually entering characters to be printed)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A short strip of material attached to or projecting from something in order to facilitate opening or identifying or handling it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

the filing cards were organized by cards having indexed tabs

Hypernyms ("tab" is a kind of...):

slip; strip (artifact consisting of a narrow flat piece of material)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

lozenge; pill; tab; tablet

Hypernyms ("tab" is a kind of...):

dosage; dose (a measured portion of medicine taken at any one time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tab"):

bolus (a large pill; used especially in veterinary medicine)

capsule (a pill in the form of a small rounded gelatinous container with medicine inside)

dragee (pill that is a sugar-coated medicated candy)

sleeping capsule; sleeping draught; sleeping pill; sleeping tablet (a soporific drug in the form of a pill (or tablet or capsule))

 Context examples 

His name was written upon a tab within it—Maple White, Lake Avenue, Detroit, Michigan.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A radiographic film that is positioned in the mouth by biting on a central tab or positioning wing.

(Bitewing Radiograph, NCI Thesaurus)