cab

Definitions

cab is a clipping of cabriolet — a light, bouncy one-horse carriage (from French cabrioler 'to leap like a goat'). The short form first meant a horse-drawn carriage for hire, then transferred to the motor taxi when engines replaced horses. The horse is gone but the word goes back, through cabriolet, to Latin caballus.

Why It Means This

A hidden horse. Nobody hears 'horse' in cab, yet it is one of the family: a cabriolet was a leaping little carriage pulled by a single horse, the word was clipped to cab, and when the horse was swapped for an engine the name simply rode along. Every taxi still quietly traces back to Latin caballus.

Common Collocations

• 1.hail a cab招出租车
• 2.cab driver出租车司机
• 3.call a cab叫出租车
• 4.take a cab乘出租车

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Let's grab a cab; it's too far to walk.

• 2.

  She hailed a cab outside the station in the rain.

• 3.

  The truck driver climbed up into the cab and started the engine.