nab, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

nab v.¹

[ety. unknown, but cf. nap v.¹ (6)]

1. (also nib) of objects, to snatch, to steal, to seize.

1659		Mercurius Democritus 10-26 Aug. 102: After her departure he found two shillings had been nib’d from him by vertue of her fingers exercis’d in his Fob.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 51: Nab, To take or To cheat.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: I’ll Nab ye, I’ll have your Hat or Cap.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1732		Harlot’s Progress 34: Rejoicing at a Watch she crib’d / The Night before, from one that nib’d.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1786		Oxford Jrnl 4 Mar. 3/2: How coudst say that the golden stick [...] is stuck all with diamonds, and that there was a design to nab it.
a.1790		‘The Flash Man of St. Giles’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 75: I at his jazy made a snatch, / And try’d for to nab his rattle.
1808		B. Bradshaw Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 9: I could make a purse or nab a pocket-book with the best.
c.1810		‘The Exciseman Outwitted’ in Holloway & Black (1979) II 99: He [...] eagerly grab’d / At those contraband goods, which in fancy he’d nab’d.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 181: I’m the boy for a bit of bobbery, / Nabbing a lantern, or milling a pane.
1833		‘A Shove In The Mouth’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 62: And when that I found seven-pen’orth you nabb’d, / So cut up and cast down was I.
1842		Egan ‘The Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 136: With his pops so bright and airy, / And his prad just like a fairy, / He went out to nab the gold!
1857		advert in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Mr. H. nabs the chance of putting his customers awake, that he has just made his escape from Russia.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 109/1: Thus taking the ‘derry’ off the real party who had ‘nabbed’ the ‘bloke’s stuff’.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 103: You remember, Mr. Commissioner, that some diamonds were nabbed at the government house, a few weeks ago?
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: Nab, to steal, to seize, etc.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 12 Sept. 8/2: Here, waiter, nab this frog-tinted ten caser and make it cover the damage.
1916		Day Bk (Chicago) 23 Nov. 17/1: Some ‘knab-the-kale’ guy put a tax on tea.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL 4 176: We nabbed this board for a stretcher.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 103: Uncle Clif has nabbed off a twenty-five-buck-a-week job, with commissions, selling autos.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Butch Minds the Baby’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 341: Spanish John nabs one of my potatoes.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 243: If you’re thinking about a reward, well . . . cops nab the rewards.
1950		P. Larkin letter 2 Apr. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 160: How good of you to [...] offer to come on the road with me, nabbing chickens no doubt & stuffing our pockets full of washing from the lines.
1970		H.E. Bates A Little of What You Fancy (1985) 437: She asked me if I ever saw one to nab it for her.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 5 Sept. 12: Car boot sales [...] tend to be haunted by dealers who nab the good stuff.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 328: Same as he’d done with the Caddy when he’d nabbed it off a Wal-Mart lot in Dallas.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘Somebody knew Teddy’s speech was worth money on the open market and they nabbed it’.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘[C]op shotguns we nabbed right out of cruisers’.
2018		R. O’Neill ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 182: The dog nabbed the snake by the tail.

2. to apprehend or arrest someone.

1681		Dialogue Between Sam, Ferry-man etc. Upon a Parliament at Oxford in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 120: I know a baliff has nabbed several of them, and matters not a straw to arrest any member of the last parliament.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 540: We were nabbed there, and clapped into lob’s pound.
1706		Answer to the Fifteen Comforts of Whoring 6: We Pimps and Bullies keep to be our Bail, / When Sharping Baliffs nabb us for a Jayl.
1712		‘Black Procession’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 39: The twentieth’s a thief-catcher, so we him call, / Who if he be nabb’d will be made pay for all.
1730		Fielding Tom Thumb II i: Were he [...] a Bully, A Highway-man, or Prize-fighter, I’d nab him.
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 129: They embraced the prisoner [...] and asked how long she had been nabb’d, and what for?
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 687: I was nabb’d on another score.
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 33: Twenty whores in a cellar, all nabb’d in a minute.
1779		Nocturnal Revels I 272: [He] was, according to the phraseology of Bum-bailiffs, at length nabbed.
1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 3: But since she is nabb’d, and has left me behind, / What a marvellous change on a sudden I find?
c.1790		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Sir Joseph Banks & the Emperor of Morocco’ Works (1794) II 197: Eureka, I’ve nabb’d the thief.
1804		Sporting Mag. May XXIV 138/1: He was nabbed and conveyed to a spunging-house.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 127: They are sure to nab my gentleman before he gets much farther, so let us brush on.
1837		‘Love in the City’ in Bentley’s Misc. Aug. 127: I’ve been nabb’d, sirs [...] And bundled off direct to jail.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Black Mousquetaire’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 4: Once he prevailed [...] On the bailiff who ‘nabbed’ him, himself to ‘go bail’ for him.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Mar. 2/1: I was nabbed (I know you understand a little flash).
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. V 49: Damnation – we’re nabbed!
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 19: He did it – and we’ve knabbed him.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 9 Aug. n.p.: A greenhorn [...] gets nabbed by the police, and goes to the penitentiary.
1861		Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. 234/1: Prisoner. A cakey-pannum-fencer, as ought to know better, peached on her, and she was nabbed by the sharping omee, and the queer-cuffen shut her up in the jug for a moll tooler.
1867		Kendal Mercury 9 Mar. 4/3: ‘You, nabbed by the peelers!’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Nov. 2/2: The car ‘cop’ Caffrey [...] ‘nabbed’ Jimmy for a ‘super’ nailed from a ‘bloke’ in Sixth avenue.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 364: Mr. Johnstone now interfered for the first time, and entreated ‘Ned’ to leave before he was ‘nabbed’ by the police.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 82: News like ours don’t take long to travel, and you might be nabbed very simple.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 5 May 5/6: Three of us garrotted an old magistrate [...] and being nabbed for the job, we got fifteen years apiece.
1896		P.L. Dunbar ‘Signs Of The Times’ in Lyrics of Lowly Life 183: He’s gwine nab you atter while.
1898		W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 67: ‘Told you I’d nab you,’ said the young constable.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 129: Great chance – to nab me on a new job altogether.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 294: I don’t deny I done three months; but so help [...] me God, I never deserved it. I knowed no more about it nor the babe unborn, till I got it off o’ the bobby that nabbed me.
1905		N. Davis Northerner 93: It had been on the market quite a bit before Wheatley nabbed me!
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 305: I say, we’re going to pile ’em all up on top of him and then jump on and pie him, and scoot for our rooms before old Bundy can jump the stairs and nab us.
1910		D. Stewart Devil of Dartmoor in Illus. Police News 1 Oct. 12/2: ‘Thought you’d nab Dan Darrell, did yer?’.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 2nd sect. 15/4: By Jove, that was a narrow squeak [...] I thought we were sure to get nabbed.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 145: That’s where the police nab him – running away from the murder he’s pulled.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 91: Who could it be them damn dumb cops nabbed?
1944		R. Olds Helldiver Squadron 227: McFarlane nabbed a Betty coming in from patrol. One pass sent the Jap tumbling into the sea.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 131: The cops nabbed the bloke with the Russell.
1952		N.Y. Daily Mirror 23 Sept. n.p.: Four young men, all members of the notorious ‘Tigers,’ [...] yesterday was nabbed after they allegedly had mugged a man on a Brooklyn street.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 114: When one [escapee] gets nabbed, the others always go sooner or later.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 149: I’ve had two mates who’ve been nabbed for pinching motor bikes or scooters.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 102: I was nabbed, and the beak gave me five years.
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 124: They just walked in when all the boys were there, and they nabbed the lot.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 108: We nabbed Jenko, but the others high-tailed it out of there.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 126: A crackdown is underway in order to nab these men.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] [H]e might hear if there had been any arrests—hear if Leah or Tobin had been nabbed.
1999		Guardian G2 10 June 4: I think it unbecoming to play the scoundrel, get nabbed, then look to the deity for mercy.
2000		Indep. Mag. 15 Jan. 17: Federal agents nabbed Blum and his companion by posing as purchasers of the bogus currency.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 122/1: nab v. to arrest.
2008		Cape Argus (S.Afr.) 28 Jan. 7: Poachers nabbed as cops swoop on ‘super ducks’.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The bulls had his number – some bastard had shopped him – and he was done for if they nabbed him.
2013		T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 234: ‘They’ve never been nabbed’.
2018		IOL News (Western Cape) 6 Nov. 🌐 Danish mother and son nabbed in Joburg for R247 million fraud.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 186: [I]f Terry shows up at any of those places, they’ll nab him.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 39: The only man ever charged in connection to the Great Bookie Robbery was Lee, nabbed spending new bank notes.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 133: Fais ce que voudras - so long as you don’t get nabbed doing it, whatever it is.

3. (UK Und., also knab) to catch or capture a person unawares; to catch, in sense of to hit; to take or seize.

1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 194: The Ruffin nab the Cuffin-quere, and let the Harmanbeck trine with his Kinchins about his Coloquaron [Let the Devil take the Justice, and let the Constable hang with his Children about his Neck].
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 161: agenor’s broomshaft flew so pat off, / It nabb’d him as he pull’d the hat off.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie III vi: laertes: I’ll nab him; —but it goes against my conscience. hamlet: Laertes, you’re afraid to hit.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘Gentle Alice Brown’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 141: I will nab this gay young sorter, terrify him into fits.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 24 Aug. 751: He just tore into the middle of us all, nabbed the Ghost and Hamlet.
1953		P. Closterman (trans.) Big Show 141: I succeeded in nabbing one [i.e. a German fighter aircraft] [...] shells exploded under his belly [...] the usual tail of thick black smoke.

4. (US) to obtain for oneself, to grab; thus in a sexual context, to seduce.

1764		K. O’Hara Midas II i: An upstart lout Has nabb’d my fickle Daph.
1800		‘Pray Remember Jack’ in Jovial Songster 83: Hard knocks I’ve nabb’d enough.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford II 113: Nabbing, grabbing all for himself.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 280: This looks queer [...] Not much to be nabbed here.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 105: He was waiting for a Chance to nab the Girl.
1919		Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 5 July 2/2: [headline] Wise Janes Nab Candy Says Poet.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 619: Studs [...] watched the centre fielder gracefully nab the ball on the run.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 282: A lecherous fellow named Babbitt / Asked a girl if she’d fuck or would nab it.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 185: That woman has been trying to nab him. She takes advantage of his good nature.
1999		Observer Rev. 17 Oct. 10: Jeremy Paxman nabbed Lamont for Start the Week and got a lot of good bankable malicious mileage.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 281: He still ‘nabbed nymphos’ and ‘bagged bitches’ that way.

5. (also nib) to catch someone out, esp. if cheating.

1775		‘The Potato Man’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 55: For nibbing culls i always hate.
1821		J. Burrowes Life in St George’s Fields 15: I let him see that I hadn’t lived in Chancery Lane without learning a bit of the Law — but however he nabbed me at last.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 162: Watching Joe Archer, who was blushing and as uneasy as a schoolgirl when nabbed in the enjoyment of an illicit love-letter.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 212: Besides, I never got nabbed.

6. (US tramp) to steal a ride on a train.

1980

R.A. Bruns Knights of the Road 14: Still nabbing an occasional slow freight .

In compounds

nab cony (n.)

see Mother Knab-cony under mother n.

nab-cramps (n.)

(UK Und.) handcuffs.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

nab-crib (n.)

the police cells.

1826

‘Nocturnal Sports’ in Universal Songster II 180/2: The vatch [...] booked us for a night’s lodging in the nab crib.

nabman (n.) (also nabbing-cull) [SE man/cull n.¹ (4)]

1. a policeman.

1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 11: Will no blood-hunting foot-pad, that hears me complain, / Stop the wind of that nabbing-cull, constable Payne?
1816		D. Terry Guy Mannnering ii 3: Old Donton has sent the nabman after him at last [F&H].
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 546: ‘[...] Merrywell—’ ‘In the hands of the Nab-men’.

2. (UK Und.) a bailiff.

1820

‘Tom Stokes Lived Once’ in Maginn O’Doherty Papers (1855) 232: But debts, tho’ borish, must be paid, / And Bailiffs a’nt bam’d for many hourse. / Ah! that the Nabman’s evil eyes / Should ever come hither.

In phrases

nab in the hock (v.) [hock n.¹/hock n.²]

(US Und.) to catch in the act.

1872

G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 82: This notorious villain [...] was fairly ‘nabbed in the hock’.

nab it on the dial (v.) [dial n.]

to take a blow on the face.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

nab one’s/the bib (v.)

see nap one’s bib under nap v.¹

nab the cramp (v.)

(UK Und.) to receive a death sentence.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

nab the regulars (v.) (also nap the regulars) [regulars n.]

(UK Und.) to take one’s usual share of a robbery’s proceeds.

1830		Lytton Paul Clifford III 245: Ve vent and fenced the swag that wery night and afterwards napped the regulars.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 67: NAP THE REGULARS, to divide the booty.
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: Then nap the regulars and go a hazard.
1873		Sl. Dict. 234: Nap the regulars to divide the booty.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Nap the Regulars - To divide the booty.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 4: The ‘right-screw’ receives money from the convict’s friends outside, and keeps up a running account with the prisoner – having previously ‘napped his regulars,’ or deducted his commission.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 52: nap the regulars [...] to divide the booty.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 7 Dec. 12/4: ‘Time enough to map [sic] the reglars (divide the booty) when we’re out of this!’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 180/2: Nap (knap) the regulars (Thieves’). Receive or grab the customary portion of the money resulting from the sale of stolen property.

nab the rust (v.) [SE rusty, refractory (of horses)]

1. orig. of horses, to be ill-tempered, sullen.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To nab the rust; to be refractory; properly applied to a restive horse, and figuratively to the human species.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 101/1: To nab the rust; a jockey’s term for a horse that is restive.
1807		Port Folio 16 May 313/2: Upon which Mrs. Basset, in the language of the Old Bailey, nabbed the rust; insisted upon some liquor, would not quit the house without it, and began to blow up the hostess and blast the rose.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

2. to be punished.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 774/2: from ca. 1890.

3. (UK Und.) to receive money.

1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 284: There’s no chance of ‘nabbing any rust’ (taking any money).

nab the snow (v.) [snow n.¹]

(UK Und.) to steal linen that has been put out to bleach or dry.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To Nab the Snow, to Steal Linnen left out to Bleach or Dry. Cant.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 316/1: nab the snow, [...] voler le linge étalé pour sécher.

nab the stifles (v.) [SE stifle, the condition of being choked]

(UK Und.) to be hanged.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues V 4/1: to nab the stifles = to be hanged.

nab the stoop (v.)

see knap the stoop under knap v.

nab the teize (v.) (also nab the tease, ...teaze, nap the teaze, ...teize) [tease v.¹; whippings were often public]

for a prisoner to be flogged as a punishment while in prison, rather than in public.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 75: The Scrobey is being whipped in the Sessions-House yard before the Justices. To nap the teize is to receive this correction privately.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: Napatees, a man to be flogged.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 67: NAP THE TEAZE, to be privately whipped in prison.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1869		Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: To be flogged is to nap the tease.
1873		Sl. Dict.

nab v.1

In compounds

In phrases

nab v.¹