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Dab in Scrabble Dictionary

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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

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Valid words made from Dab

You can make 6 words from 'dab' in our Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

3 letters words from 'dab'

BAD 6DAB 6

2 letters words from 'dab'

AB 4AD 3
BA 4DA 3

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”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Comparable 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.
    • 2019, Stormzy, Vossi Bop
      Look, my brothas don't dab, we just vossi bop
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
    • page 197: I step closer to Profit and draw in a deep, steadying breath while the brothers exchange dabs. “What's up, fam? I see you finally made it.”
  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, Britain) 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.
Related terms
  • dap
  • dob
  • tap
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.
Derived terms
  • dab hand
  • 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)

  1. A small flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, especially Limanda limanda; a flounder.
  2. (US) A sand dab, a small flatfish of genus Citharichthys.
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 at 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

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic ذَابَ‎ (ḏāba).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /daːp/

Verb

dab (imperfect jdub, verbal noun dewbien)

  1. (intransitive) to melt (become liquid, especially through warmth)

Sumerian

Romanization

dab

  1. Romanization of 𒁳 (dab)

White Hmong

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /da˥/

Noun

dab

  1. (evil) spirit, considered responsible for epileptic attacks among other things

Derived terms

  • qaug dab peg

References

  • Ernest E. Heimbach, White Hmong - English Dictionary (1979, SEAP Publications)

Yola

Alternative forms

  • dap

Etymology

From Middle English dabben.

Verb

dab

  1. dash, slap

References

  • Jacob Poole (1867), 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

Source: wiktionary.org
  • to touch lightly.
    (source: Collins Scrabble Dictionary)