"dab hand" meaning in English

See dab hand in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dab hands [plural]
Etymology: From dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|dab#Etymology_2<t: an expert; an adept>|hand}} dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand Head templates: {{en-noun}} dab hand (plural dab hands)
  1. (British) An expert; a very skilled person. Tags: British Derived forms: dab-handed Translations (an expert): ringarehe (Maori), спе́ц (spéc) [masculine] (Russian), до́ка (dóka) [masculine] (Russian), маста́к (masták) [masculine] (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab#Etymology_2<t: an expert; an adept>",
        "3": "hand"
      },
      "expansion": "dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dab hands",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dab hand (plural dab hands)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Maori translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "dab-handed"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              8,
              16
            ]
          ],
          "text": "She's a dab hand in the kitchen.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An expert; a very skilled person."
      ],
      "id": "en-dab_hand-en-noun-x4xBgv7E",
      "links": [
        [
          "expert",
          "expert"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British) An expert; a very skilled person."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "lang_code": "mi",
          "sense": "an expert",
          "word": "ringarehe"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "spéc",
          "sense": "an expert",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "спе́ц"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "dóka",
          "sense": "an expert",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "до́ка"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "masták",
          "sense": "an expert",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "маста́к"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dab hand"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "dab-handed"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab#Etymology_2<t: an expert; an adept>",
        "3": "hand"
      },
      "expansion": "dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From dab (“ an expert; an adept”) + hand.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dab hands",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dab hand (plural dab hands)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English links with manual fragments",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Maori translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              8,
              16
            ]
          ],
          "text": "She's a dab hand in the kitchen.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An expert; a very skilled person."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "expert",
          "expert"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British) An expert; a very skilled person."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "lang_code": "mi",
      "sense": "an expert",
      "word": "ringarehe"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "spéc",
      "sense": "an expert",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "спе́ц"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "dóka",
      "sense": "an expert",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "до́ка"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "masták",
      "sense": "an expert",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "маста́к"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dab hand"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dab hand meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). 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.