different between yay vs dab

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: y?, IPA^(key): /je?/
• Rhymes: -e?
• Homophone: yea

Etymology 1

Alteration of yea (“yes; even, truly, verily”). More at yea.

Alternative forms

• yea

Interjection

yay

1. (colloquial) An expression of happiness.

   Yay! I have finally finished my work!

2. Misspelling of yea.

Synonyms

• (an expression of happiness): hooray

Derived terms

• yayness

Translations

Adverb

yay (not comparable)

1. Alternative spelling of yea

   The tree was yay big.

See also

• nay

Etymology 2

From the sound it represents, by analogy with the other palatal letters chay and jay.

Noun

yay (plural yays)

1. The letter for the y sound in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• wye, the name of the Latin letter for this sound

Etymology 3

From Spanish llello.

Alternative forms

• yayo, yay-yo, yeyo

Noun

yay (uncountable)

1. (US, slang) Cocaine (powder or crack).
   • 2006, "They Shootin'", Vibe, December 2006:

     In Billy Corben's engrossing new documentary, Cocaine Cowboys (Magnolia Pictures), self-described "assassin" Jorge "Rivi" Ayala (among others) give up the goods on Miami's explosive early '80s yay trade.

   • 2009, Tyrone Pierson, Murder in the Moonlight, AuthorHouse (2009), ?ISBN, page 339:

     I'm in charge of a whole city block, and I always wear gloves when I touch the yay, cuz traces of cocaine show up on my u. a., when I touch it with my bare hands.

   • 2012, Azealia Banks, "Liquorice", 1991:

     I don't do yay, but if you want to, fine

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:cocaine.

Anagrams

• ayy

Azerbaijani

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [j?j]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Turkic *y?y (“summer”).

Noun

yay (definite accusative yay?, plural yaylar)

1. summer

See also

Etymology 2

From Proto-Turkic *y?(y) (“bow”).

Noun

yay (definite accusative yay?, plural yaylar)

1. bow (a weapon used for shooting arrows)

Declension

References

Middle English

Pronoun

yay

1. Alternative form of þei (“they”)

Ojibwe

Particle

yay

1. exclamation

Turkish

Etymology 1

From Ottoman Turkish ???? (yay), from Proto-Turkic *y?(y) (“bow”).

Cognate with Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar yay Gagauz yay or yay?, Bashkir ???? (yäyä) or ?? (yan), Chuvash ?? (?u), Nogai ?? (yay), Khakas ????? (çacax), Karaim yay, Karakalpak jay, Kazakh ??? (jay), Kyrgyz ??? (caa) ,Southern Altai ??? (?aa, “bow”), Tatar ???? (cäyä) ,Turkmen ýaaý, Uzbek yoy,Tuvan ?? (ça), Uyghur ??? (ya) etc.

Noun

yay (definite accusative yay?, plural yaylar)

1. bow (weapon)

Etymology 2

Verb

yay

1. second-person singular imperative of yaymak

English

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): /d?p/
• Hyphenation: dab
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

dab m (uncountable)

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

Related terms

• dabben

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic ???? (??b). The expected form would be dieb, which exists dialectally. The imala was irregularly inverted as in some other verbs with -u- in the imperfect.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /da?p/

Verb

dab (imperfect jdub)

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

Derived terms

• dewweb

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, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN