1. Home
  2. Scrabble Dictionary. Word Meaning and Points

Dab in Scrabble and Meaning

Lookup Word Points and Definitions

What does dab mean? Is dab a Scrabble word?

How many points in Scrabble is dab worth? dab how many points in Words With Friends? What does dab mean? Get all these answers on this page.

Scrabble® and Words with Friends® points for dab

See how to calculate how many points for dab.

Is dab a Scrabble word?

Yes. The word dab is a Scrabble US word. The word dab is worth 6 points in Scrabble:

D2A1B3

Is dab a Scrabble UK word?

Yes. The word dab is a Scrabble UK word and has 6 points:

D2A1B3

Is dab a Words With Friends word?

Yes. The word dab is a Words With Friends word. The word dab is worth 7 points in Words With Friends (WWF):

D2A1B4

Our tools

Valid words made from Dab

Jump to...

Results

3-letter words (2 found)

BAD,DAB,

2-letter words (4 found)

AB,AD,BA,DA,

You can make 6 words from dab according to the Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

All 3 letters words made out of dab

dab adb dba bda abd bad

Note: these 'words' (valid or invalid) are all the permutations of the word dab. These words are obtained by scrambling the letters in dab.

Definitions and meaning of dab

dab

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dæb/
  • Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

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”).

Verb

dab (third-person singular simple present dabs, present participle dabbing, simple past and past participle dabbed)

  1. (transitive) To press lightly in a repetitive motion with a soft object without rubbing.
  2. (transitive) To apply a substance in this way.
  3. To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust.
    • 1532-1533, Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer
      to dabbe him in the necke
  4. (slang) To apply hash oil to a heated surface for the purpose of efficient combustion.
  5. (dance, intransitive) To perform the dab dance move, by moving both arms to one side of the body parallel with your head.
Translations

Noun

dab (plural dabs)

  1. A soft tap or blow; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
  2. (African-American Vernacular) A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.
    Coordinate terms: dap, fist bump, high five
  3. A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.
    Synonym: blob
    1. (slang) A small amount of hash oil.
  4. (chiefly in the plural, dated, British) Fingerprint.
  5. (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.
  6. (obsolete) A dabbler.
Derived terms
  • dab pen
  • poor dab
  • smack-dab
Related terms
  • dap
  • dob
  • tap
Descendants
  • Irish: daba
Translations

Adverb

dab (not comparable)

  1. With a dab, or sudden contact.
Translations

See also

  • daub

Etymology 2

Perhaps corrupted from adept.

Noun

dab (plural dabs)

  1. One skilful or proficient; an expert; an adept.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:skilled person
    • c. 1759-1770?, Oliver Goldsmith, Essay
      One excels at a plan or the title page, another works away at the body of the book, and the third is a dab at an index.
    • 1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘A Collection of Letters’, Juvenilia:
      Indeed I had always heard what a dab he was at a Love-letter.
Derived terms
  • dab hand
  • dab-handed
  • dabster
Translations

Etymology 3

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

Noun

dab (plural dabs)

  2. A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder.
  3. (US) A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.
Descendants
  • → Irish: daba
Translations

Etymology 4

Back slang for bad.

Adjective

dab (comparative more dab, superlative most dab)

  1. (obsolete, costermongers) Bad.
    Synonym: trosseno
    Antonyms: doog, doogheno

References

Further reading

  • dab on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • dab (dance) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Oxford English Dictionary (1989)
  • “dab”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

  • ABD, ADB, Abd., BDA, D.B.A., DBA, abd., bad, d/b/a, dba

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English dab.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɛp/
  • Hyphenation: dab
  • Rhymes: -ɛp

Noun

dab m (uncountable)

  1. (dance) The dab (hip-hop dance move).

Related terms

  • dabben

Indonesian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈdap̚]
  • Hyphenation: dab

Etymology 1

From English dub, a shortening of the word double.

Noun

dab (first-person possessive dabku, second-person possessive dabmu, third-person possessive dabnya)

  1. dub: the replacement of a voice part in a movie or cartoon, particularly with a translation; an instance of dubbing.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Arabic ضَبّ (ḍabb), from Proto-Semitic *ṣ́abb-.

Noun

dab (first-person possessive dabku, second-person possessive dabmu, third-person possessive dabnya)

  1. dabb lizard, Egyptian mastigure, Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard, Leptien's mastigure, Egyptian uromastyx, or Egyptian dabb lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia).
    Synonym: kadal gurun

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

dab (first-person possessive dabku, second-person possessive dabmu, third-person possessive dabnya)

  1. a kind of mat measuring approximately 2 m, made of woven pandan leaves that are connected by stitching

Further reading

  • “dab” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Maltese

Alternative forms

  • dieb

Etymology

From Arabic ذَابَ (ḏāba).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /daːp/

Verb

dab (imperfect jdub, verbal noun dewbien or dwib or dwieb) (intransitive)

  1. to melt (become liquid, especially through warmth)
  2. to disappear
  3. to become emaciated
  4. to show tender feelings

Conjugation

Somali

Noun

dab m

  1. fire
  2. firearm

Verb

dab

  1. to trap
  2. to ensnare

References

  • Abdirahman Abdillahi Farah "Barwaago" (1995) “dab”, in A Modern Somali-English Dictionary, Ottawa: Ottawa Catholic School Board, →ISBN, page 89
  • Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “dab”, in Qaamuuska Af-Soomaliga‎[7], Rome: RomaTrE-Press, →ISBN, page 167

Sumerian

Romanization

dab

  1. Romanization of 𒁳 (dab)

White Hmong

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /da˥/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Hmong-Mien *qlaŋ (“neck”); related to Old Chinese 頸 (OC *keŋʔ, *ɡeŋ, “neck”).

Noun

dab

  1. (in compounds) neck or other narrow object
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Proto-Hmong *qraŋᴬ (“spirit, ghost”).

Noun

dab

  1. (evil) spirit, considered responsible for epileptic attacks among other things
  2. demon
  3. monster
Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Proto-Hmong *qroŋᴬ (“trough”).

Noun

dab (classifier: lub)

  1. a trough, a hollowed out length of log etc.
Derived terms

References

  • Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary‎[8], SEAP Publications, →ISBN, pages 28-9.

Yola

Alternative forms

  • dap

Etymology

From Middle English dabben.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dab/, /dap/

Noun

dab

  1. dash, slap
  2. touch, tap

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 33

Source: wiktionary.org