"black cab" meaning in English

See black cab in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: black cabs [plural]
Etymology: From the usual black colour of officially licensed hackney carriages and motorized taxis in London, particularly after World War II. Head templates: {{en-noun}} black cab (plural black cabs)
  1. (informal) An officially licensed taxi in London, now particularly those made by LTI or the London EV Company. Tags: informal Translations (officially licensed taxi in London): taksówka londyńska [feminine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-black_cab-en-noun-3YxTE8e6 Categories (other): London Disambiguation of London: 100 0 Disambiguation of 'officially licensed taxi in London': 81 19
  2. (informal) Similarly styled taxis elsewhere, especially officially licensed taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Tags: informal Synonyms (officially licensed taxis in the UK): hackney carriage [formal] Translations (similarly styled taxi elsewhere): taksówka [feminine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-black_cab-en-noun-FQ38yXlT Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Polish translations, United Kingdom, Vehicles Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 32 68 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 30 70 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 16 84 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 31 69 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 27 73 Disambiguation of United Kingdom: 0 100 Disambiguation of Vehicles: 25 75 Disambiguation of 'officially licensed taxis in the UK': 41 59 Disambiguation of 'similarly styled taxi elsewhere': 7 93

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the usual black colour of officially licensed hackney carriages and motorized taxis in London, particularly after World War II.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "black cabs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "black cab (plural black cabs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "100 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "London",
          "orig": "en:London",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Black cabs may be more expensive than ubers, but their drivers are required to pass the Knowledge.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2023 February 8, Greg Morse, “Crossing the border... by Sleeper”, in RAIL, number 976, page 45:",
          "text": "Sitting in a black cab as it speeds away into the traffic, I check my bag. There, hiding in the bottom corner, I find a hand and body wash with the Caledonian Sleeper logo on it. I hadn't used it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An officially licensed taxi in London, now particularly those made by LTI or the London EV Company."
      ],
      "id": "en-black_cab-en-noun-3YxTE8e6",
      "links": [
        [
          "officially",
          "officially"
        ],
        [
          "licensed",
          "licensed"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "London",
          "London"
        ],
        [
          "now",
          "now"
        ],
        [
          "particularly",
          "particularly"
        ],
        [
          "those",
          "those"
        ],
        [
          "made",
          "made"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) An officially licensed taxi in London, now particularly those made by LTI or the London EV Company."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "81 19",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "officially licensed taxi in London",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "taksówka londyńska"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "32 68",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 84",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 69",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 100",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "United Kingdom",
          "orig": "en:United Kingdom",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 75",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Vehicles",
          "orig": "en:Vehicles",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Similarly styled taxis elsewhere, especially officially licensed taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
      ],
      "id": "en-black_cab-en-noun-FQ38yXlT",
      "links": [
        [
          "Similarly",
          "similar"
        ],
        [
          "styled",
          "styled"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "elsewhere",
          "elsewhere"
        ],
        [
          "especially",
          "especially"
        ],
        [
          "officially",
          "officially"
        ],
        [
          "licensed",
          "licensed"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "elsewhere",
          "elsewhere"
        ],
        [
          "United Kingdom",
          "United Kingdom"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Similarly styled taxis elsewhere, especially officially licensed taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "41 59",
          "sense": "officially licensed taxis in the UK",
          "tags": [
            "formal"
          ],
          "word": "hackney carriage"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "7 93",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "similarly styled taxi elsewhere",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "taksówka"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Royal Albert Hall"
  ],
  "word": "black cab"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "en:London",
    "en:United Kingdom",
    "en:Vehicles"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the usual black colour of officially licensed hackney carriages and motorized taxis in London, particularly after World War II.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "black cabs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "black cab (plural black cabs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Black cabs may be more expensive than ubers, but their drivers are required to pass the Knowledge.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2023 February 8, Greg Morse, “Crossing the border... by Sleeper”, in RAIL, number 976, page 45:",
          "text": "Sitting in a black cab as it speeds away into the traffic, I check my bag. There, hiding in the bottom corner, I find a hand and body wash with the Caledonian Sleeper logo on it. I hadn't used it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An officially licensed taxi in London, now particularly those made by LTI or the London EV Company."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "officially",
          "officially"
        ],
        [
          "licensed",
          "licensed"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "London",
          "London"
        ],
        [
          "now",
          "now"
        ],
        [
          "particularly",
          "particularly"
        ],
        [
          "those",
          "those"
        ],
        [
          "made",
          "made"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) An officially licensed taxi in London, now particularly those made by LTI or the London EV Company."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Similarly styled taxis elsewhere, especially officially licensed taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Similarly",
          "similar"
        ],
        [
          "styled",
          "styled"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "elsewhere",
          "elsewhere"
        ],
        [
          "especially",
          "especially"
        ],
        [
          "officially",
          "officially"
        ],
        [
          "licensed",
          "licensed"
        ],
        [
          "taxi",
          "taxi"
        ],
        [
          "elsewhere",
          "elsewhere"
        ],
        [
          "United Kingdom",
          "United Kingdom"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Similarly styled taxis elsewhere, especially officially licensed taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "officially licensed taxis in the UK",
      "tags": [
        "formal"
      ],
      "word": "hackney carriage"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "officially licensed taxi in London",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "taksówka londyńska"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "similarly styled taxi elsewhere",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "taksówka"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Royal Albert Hall"
  ],
  "word": "black cab"
}

Download raw JSONL data for black cab meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (ade7ec3 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.