1. A shortened form of CABRIOLET, applied not only to the original vehicle so named and its improved successor the ‘hansom,’ but also to four-wheeled carriages shaped like broughams; thus, a public carriage with two or four wheels, drawn by one horse, and seating two or four persons, of which various types are used in different towns. b. for CABMAN.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 461. Some [were] in gigs, some in cabs, some in drags.
1831. Macaulay, Letter, 28 May. I dressed, called a cab, and was whisked away to Hill Street.
1832. Capt. B. Hall, Fragm. Voy. & Trav., Ser. II. V. 115. Off I hurried in a cab—or more probably in a chariot, for this was some years before the glorious era of cabs.
1858. Lytton, What will He do? (1859), II. VI. i. 237. My cab is waiting yonder.
1868. Daily News, 30 Dec., 5/1. Cabs—or cabriolets, as they were first called—were not known to us until the year 1820.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xlvi. ‘Drive to Shepherd’s Inn, Cab.’
2. A small erection, somewhat like the head of a cabriolet, serving as a shelter to the drivers of locomotive engines.
1864. in Webster, s.v. Locomotive.
1877. M. Reynolds, Locom. Engine Driving (1882), 47. The cab, or covering for the engine-driver and stoker, is erected over the foot-plate.
1883. E. Ingersoll, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 198/2. There is no cab, or place to put one, no pilot, head-light, or any other appurtenances of an ordinary locomotive.
3. attrib. and in Comb., as cab-driver, -driving, -hire, -hirer, -master, -owner, -proprietor, -trade; cab-box, the driver’s seat on a cab; cab-boy, a boy in livery who attends his master when driving to hold the horse, etc., a ‘tiger’; cab-car, a larger vehicle than a cab (see quot.); cab-horse, a horse that draws a cab; cab-rank, a row of cabs on a stand; cab-runner, cab-tout, one who makes a living by calling cabs; cab-stand, a place where cabs are authorized to stand while waiting for hire; cab-yard, a yard where cabs are kept when off duty. Also CABMAN, etc.
1868. Once a Week, 11 April, 322/1. Reduce him to the outward degradation which is to be seen planted upon a London *cab-box.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, II. viii. 69. I sent my *cab boy (vulgo Tiger) to inquire of the groom, whether the horse was to be sold, and to whom it belonged.
1882. Daily News, 14 Jan., 3/4. The cab, which is termed a *‘cab-car,’ perhaps attracted the most notice…. The weight of the vehicle is balanced upon the two hind wheels. The cab, which will contain five or six persons, is entered from the front.
1842. T. Martin, My Namesake, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec., 650/2. Leaving me at the mercy of a dozen or two *cab-drivers.
1860. Ld. Lytton, Lucile, II. IV. iv. 7. The complaint of a much disappointed cab-driver.
1860. All Y. Round, No. 44. 416/2. Having succeeded in making me take a more charitable view of the business and trials of *cab-driving.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 328/2. The cabdriving class.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1885), 134. A prancing *cab-horse.
1858. Lytton, What will He do? (1859), III. VII. vii. 26. The finest cab-horse in London.
1864. Soc. Science Rev., I. 407. The relations of *cab-masters and cab-men … *cab-owners and cab-hirers.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 25 Jan., 5/2. Madness may be more common on the *cab-rank than is suspected. Ibid. (1883), 1 June. The *cab-runner … is a very undesirable addition to modern civilization.
1860. Tristram, Gt. Sahara, i. 4. Place Mahon, now merely the *cab-stand of Algiers.
1863. Ld. Lytton, Ring Amasis, I. I. II. viii. 190. Order a carriage from the nearest cabstand.
1883. Daily News, 6 June, 5/2. When the cab reaches its goal the *cab-tout makes himself busy in unlading the luggage.
