Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To poke or thrust abruptly: jabbed a knife into the log.
- v. To stab or pierce: jabbed the steak with a fork.
- v. To punch (someone) with short blows.
- v. To make an abrupt poking or thrusting motion: jabbed at the pickles with his fork.
- v. To deliver a quick punch.
- n. A quick stab or blow.
- n. Sports A short straight punch in boxing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To strike with the end or point of something; thrust the end of something against or into; poke.
- To strike with the end or point of; thrust: as, to jab a stick against a person; to jab a cane into or through a picture.
- n. A stroke with the point or end of something; a thrust.
- n. Nautical, a net used in catching the fry of fish.
Wiktionary
- n. A quick stab or blow
- n. boxing A short straight punch.
- n. UK A medical injection.
- n. US, figuratively A verbal annoyance.
- v. To poke or thrust abruptly, or to make such a motion.
- v. To deliver a quick punch.
- v. slang, UK To give someone an injection
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. Scot. & Colloq. U. S. To thrust; to stab; to punch. See job, v. t.
- n. Scot. & Colloq. U. S. A thrust or stab.
WordNet 3.0
- v. poke or thrust abruptly
- n. a quick short straight punch
- n. the act of touching someone suddenly with your finger or elbow
- v. stab or pierce
- v. strike or punch with quick and short blows
- n. a sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow)
Etymologies
- Variant of job2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“McMaster's jab is notable because the rest of the Republican candidates for governor – not wanting to be weighed down by the Sanford saga - have so far tread lightly when handling questions about the governor.”
“Besides the mandatory record label jab, all of Black Thought's punches are directed at himself, being a better man, seeking a stronger deity.”
The Huffington Post: Derek Beres: Global Beat Fusion: How the Roots Got Over
“I am disappointed to see that negativity upheld by Non Sequitur, but I have to admit that jab is well deserved by the slobs who use the anonymity and remoteness of the field to conduct themselves poorly.”
“One problem with the jab is that in some Heartland cities – whose values Jamie is supposed to stand for – Ann Taylor stores are the most stylish in town.”
“A friendly political jab is a small price to pay to avoid a ticket.”
“Moore's parting jab is that Goss granted the interview with Moore's producers without bothering to check who they were working for.”
“But the Elián jab is more like a haymaker, replicating Alan Diaz's famous Associated Press photo of the closet invasion, with Yogi and BooBoo in the starring roles.”
“I must say, though, that Americans typically manage pronunciation of "un-Englished" words better than Australians do - and much better than most British speakers, many of whom will say "Poonjab" with a second syllable like the English word "jab", not with the more correct "jahb".”
“Other infections which the injections guard against are MMR and the controversial cervical cancer jab, which is for girls only.”
Landmark U.S. Study: Delaying Child’s Vaccinations May Do Harm | Impact Lab
“We knew the jab was the key to the fight," Roach said.”
The Guardian: Amir Khan conquers States with victory over Paulie Malignaggi
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jab’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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FUN - gestures
There are thousands of sign languages and possibly millions of gestures in human communication but not all of them have a name. Some are understood everywhere, some are understood everywhere but di...
okay sign, abhayamudra, apology, beckoning sign, Bellamy salute, benediction, blessing, blah-blah, "check, please” sign, clenched fist, Chinese number ge..., Clinton thumb and 360 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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touch
palp, tactile, brush, abut, bepaint, tinct, soupcon, graze, stroke, allude, nudge, epicritic and 67 more...
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Words that hurt
A collection of words that inflict pain. If you liked this, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_Money_(game)
jab, headbutt, headlock, choke, elbow, grab, kick, slap, roundhouse, spinning backfist, stomp, uppercut and 40 more...
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Scrabble words which start with the l...
juvenile, juvenal, jutty, jute, jut, justness, justly, justle, justify, justice, juster, just and 534 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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Why We Curse: WTF?
This list collects the magnificent collection of vocabulary of the article "What the F***? Why We Curse," by Steven Pinker, in The New Republic (Oct. 2007). I think I'm more impressed with the coll...
curse, language, earthy, ancient, unthinkable, thinkable, emotional, rhyme, meter, alliteration, pleasure, metaphor and 196 more...
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Onomatopoetics
Words formed in imitation of a natural sound.
bumble-bee, rat-a-tat, blurt, clink, chickadee, rub-a-dub, chirr, chug, keck, flim-flam, brekekekex, thunk and 94 more...
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Handcraft
Gestures, signs and signals.
gesture, sign language, hand signal, manual communication, diving signal, tic-tac, gang signal, thumbs up, thumbs down, finger binary, pointing, a-ok and 106 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1500 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for jab.
jmjarmstrong JM has been to the acupuncturist – that’s a jab well done. May 25, 2011