🇬🇧 Dab meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

To dab means to touch something very softly and very quickly, usually with the tip of your finger, a cloth, or a tissue. You don’t rub or wipe hard—you just tap gently, often again and again, like when you dab your face with a towel to dry tiny drops of water.

The chef let me dab a tiny bit of hot sauce on my food, and my tongue immediately retired from service.

At the fancy restaurant, I tried to dab my mouth politely, but the napkin got stuck to my lip like a mustache.

The cat likes to dab my nose with her paw to see if I’m still alive before breakfast.

I used a tissue to dab my tears after my sandwich fell, face down, on the only dirty spot on the floor.

If a scientist spills chemicals, they carefully dab them up instead of wiping, because dabbing soaks it safely without spreading it around.

A child finds a tiny bird with a torn wing. She dabs its head with cool water, then dabs a napkin to slow the bleeding. Her throat tightens; she dabs her own eyes and goes back to dab the wing again. The bird blinks, tucks into her palm, she dabs the wing once more; the bird settles, and she laughs.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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