▪ I. jab, v. colloq. or dial.
(dʒæb)
[var., orig. Sc., of job v.1]
a. trans. To thrust with the end or point of something; to poke roughly; to stab.
| 1825–80 Jamieson, To Jab, to prick sharply. Ettr. For. 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 243 The hog..being jabbed with a spear. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 24 May 2/3 M. Mendès got jabbed in the lower part of his chest, seriously if not fatally. |
b. To thrust (something) with an abrupt blow (into a thing or person).
| 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 238, I disapprove of jabbing the spear into a hog. 1885 Howells Silas Lapham I. 12 Jabbing the point of his penknife into the writing pad. |
c. absol. or intr. To stab.
| 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 238 When alone, it is fair to jab. 1892 R. Kipling Life's Handicap 119 The Khusru Kheyl jab upwards from below, remember. |
d. trans. To give (a person) a stabbing blow with the fist. Also fig.
| 1901 R. Fitzsimmons Physical Culture & Self-Defense 114 Jab him, if you can, with your left. 1915 E. Corri 30 Yrs. Boxing Referee 38 Time and again he jabbed and patted Smith cleverly on the nose with his left hand. 1959 Amer. Speech XXXIV. 155 One may be shafted or jabbed by the opposite sex, a professor..or anyone else for any real or imagined injury. |
e. trans. and intr. To inject or inoculate (a person) with a hypodermic needle; to use (a hypodermic needle) to make an injection. So ˈjabbing vbl. n. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1926 Flynn's 16 Jan. 638/2 Some stiffs uses mud but coke don't need any jabbin', cookin', or flops. You can hit it an' go. 1938 Amer. Speech XIII. 186/1 To jab, to take drugs hypodermically. 1948 Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 100 Be jabbed, to be inoculated or vaccinated. 1956 S. Longstreet Real Jazz xviii. 114 Not all jazz-players smoke marijuana or opium, or sniff snow or jab a vein. 1968 J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself xiii. 146 Dr Wadd..dashed in with a hypodermic syringe of digitalis and jabbed it so hastily, though successfully, into the back of one of his hands that it raised a large lump. 1968 ‘L. Black’ Outbreak ix. 82 Smith-road primary was jabbed. Why not our school? |
▪ II. jab, n. colloq. or dial.
(dʒæb)
[f. prec. vb.]
1. a. An act of jabbing; an abrupt blow with something pointed, or (in pugilistic slang) with the fist.
| 1825–80 Jamieson, Jab, the act of pricking in this way [see jab v.]. 1872 C. D. Warner Backlog Studies 260 Giving the fire a jab with the poker. 1889 Gunter That Frenchman! xi, A short, sharp, terrible jab of the masked man's unengaged left hand. 1899 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 198 The chief's son..made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man. |
b. An injection with a hypodermic needle. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1914 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 48 Jab, current amongst morphine and cocaine fiends. A hypodermic injection. 1959 Punch 13 May 658/3 Receiving the hypodermic jab intended for the bullock. 1972 G. Durrell Catch me a Colobus i. 11 Can't you give me a jab of something to keep me going? 1973 Times 17 Apr. (Liberia Suppl.) p. ii/2 The visitor must..take precautions and submit to a variety of jabs. |
2. A radio signal of momentary duration. colloq.
| 1932 News Chron. 23 Sept. 10/7 Another film I saw was of the flight of a jab of wireless energy on its journey from the East End to King's College, Strand. 1945 Electronic Engin. XVII. 679/3 For this purpose they devised a radio transmitter which sent out very short pulses, or jabs, of radio energy. |
▸ A critical or mocking remark. Freq. with at.
| 1905 Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) (Electronic text) 17 June Who was the inspiration for these verbal jabs? 1955 Van Wert (Ohio) Times-Bull. 20 Aug. 4/1 He also could not resist taking a good-natured jab at the colossus to the north. 1978 S. Heaney Preoccupations (1984) 107 Many of Moore's most quotable jabs at the romantic figure of the poet are more suggestive of affection than of a desire to afflict. 2003 Globe & Mail (Toronto) Mar. 13 s3/4 Domi also threw a jab at those who blasted the Leafs for not landing a marquee free agent. |