tab n.3
1. (US) the bill, credit, an IOU.
 | Turnover Club 19: And they knocked off and filed out into the deserted streets, while the Purveyor figured up the ‘tabs’ [DA]. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 61: ‘[S]tep in there [i.e. a bar] some day along in the middle of the afternoon an’ take a front seat an’ a tab an’ throw your field glasses on the bunch’. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Tab, credit requested and granted. | |
| Pal Joey 106: Pay that little tab as he is getting nasty. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 131: ‘It’s about the tab.’ [...] ‘What are you in for?’ ‘Twenty-three hundred and some.’. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 8: All we do is pay the tab, the extra 6 or 7 per cent passed on to the consumer. | |
| America’s Homosexual Underground 136: He knew enough restaurant owners who would accept his tab. | |
| (con. 1960s) Wanderers 210: You wanna see Glassman tomorrow, tell ’im to put it on my tab. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 158: Hot Rod collects their checks each month, subtracts their bar tab and rent. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 182: Sorry, George, you’re cut off until I see the color of your money. Your tab’s getting pretty big. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Indep. Mag. 17 July 18: The loudmouthed Jerks In Suits who demand instant attention and then leave a £1 tip on a £150 tab. | |
| Indep. Rev. 13 Mar. 1: ‘Put it on my tab,’ he tells the landlord. | |
| Hard Bounce [ebook] I paid the tab. |
2. fig. use of sense 1, used to imply that an action, good or bad, will be paid for later.
| Carlito’s Way 42: If I’m dressing out of Leighton’s and driving Caddies and Lincolns, there got to be a tab sometime. | |
| London Fields 262: I’m clearly meant to take the blame for this. For this disaster also I am obliged to pocket the tab. | |
| Urban Grimshaw 280: The smackheads were also being called upon to pay their tab. |
3. (US prison) letters passed between inmates; a letter smuggled out of prison.
| ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 441: tab, n. A letter smuggled out of prison. | |
| et al. DAUL 217/1: Tab, n. 1. (P) A written note passed from one convict to another; an informer’s note to officials. 2. Any note or letter. 3. (Rare) An uncensored letter smuggled in or out of prison. |
In compounds
(US black) a line of credit at a bar or any other type of business.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 9 Oct. 20: Shortly after, the skull came up on the tab action, and gassed the scribe that he was beat for some beater. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 16: I’ve been on a tab issue for many a dim and bright . |
In phrases
(orig. US) to keep under surveillance, to take note of.
| Monthly Republican 15 Feb. n.p.: [As] the conductor [...] did not keep tab on the party Maloney travelled free [DA]. | |
| Billy Baxter’s Letters 35: I have so many troubles of my own getting home from any place at all that I haven’t time to keep tab on other people. | |
| Brand Blotters (1912) 32: Kept tab on me, did you? | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 78: Keep tabs and see that he don’t go south with the dough. | |
| From Coast to Coast with Jack London 59–60: Old Strikes still lingered by the fence, keeping an alert tab on our actions. | |
| Babbitt (1974) 99: You better start a rapidwhiz system to keep tabs as to how fast you’ll buzz from low smoke spirits to tip-top-high. | |
| Leave it to Psmith (1993) 459: I have little leisure to keep tab on the domestic staff. | |
| ‘Hold ’Em, Yale!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 158: I have these private detectives keeping tab on him. | |
| Nine Tailors (1984) 119: They kept tabs on him till the beginning of September. Then he disappeared. | |
| Big Con 136: The ‘tailers’ who keep tab on the mark. | |
| A Rope of Sand (1947) 54: This is a hell of a place to keep tabs on. | |
| Little Men, Big World 78: The Mover’s keeping pretty good tabs and if they buy in again there will be real trouble. | |
| Savage Night (1991) 19: He’d just keep tabs on me. | |
| in Sweet Daddy 55: Couldn’t keep a tab on her. She’d come and go. | |
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 45: Somebody had to keep tabs on the national pulse. | |
| Inside the Und. 69: It is necessary [...] to keep tabs on new associates. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Holden’s Performance (1989) 291: The Colonel had us keeping tabs on you for months. | |
| Observer 7 Nov. 7: Modern communications are allowing busy mums and dads [...] to keep tabs on their kids. | |
| Random Family 108: They had been keeping tabs on her. | |
| Disassembled Man [ebook] Don Johnson left me alone, although i know for a fact he was keeping tabs on me. | |
| Rough Riders 13: The man is getting antsy. Trying to keep tabs all of a sudden. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Glorious Heresies 154: [T]hey thought this was the best way of keeping tabs on me. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 850: They listen in, reading my mails. They’ll be reading this. [...] They even keep tabs on my friends. |
1. to pay a bill, usu. in a restaurant; the implication is one of treating one’s fellow eaters.
| [ | | ‘The New Fable of the Speedy Sprite’ in Ade’s Fables 25: The usual Battle as to which should pick up the Check and the same old Compromise. A Dutch Treat with Waitress trying to spread it four ways]. |
| ‘On Broadway’ 21 Nov. [synd. col.] Vincent Bendix [...] ran into his ex-wife and her new groom [...] at Club 18 the other night, and picked up the tab. | |
| Vanity Row 271: I ordered the dinner especially for us, Roy. Sort of a celebration. And I intend to pick up the tab’. | |
| Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 203: Some night-club’s offered to pick up my tab if I’ll sing every night. | |
| Prince of the City 172: This is a sixty-dollar dinner for two [...] It is Nunziata who picks up the check. | |
| (con. 1970) 13th Valley (1983) 79: L-T’s pickin up the tab [...] with his own bread. | |
| Muscle for the Wing 83: Wanda [...] gestured for another [beer] since she knew who’d pick up the tab. | |
| Homeboy 51: When the money ran out, Father Aloysius picked up the tab. | |
| Guardian G2 31 Jan. 8: If their sponsored litigant loses, they’ll have to pick up the legal tab. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Daddy was picking up the tab. | |
| I, Fatty 71: I picked up every tab. Bought everyone presents. | |
| Rough Riders 19: He stood up and pointed to the table. ‘You mind picking up the tab on this?’. | |
| Border [ebook] ‘I’m picking up your tab’. |
2. to take responsibility, to accept the consequences, esp. if financial.
| Chicago Sun.Times 24 Jan. 27/2: Who’s going to pick up the tab when the government is on relief? [DA]. | |
| Return of the Hood 51: You’re picking up a tab for me. | |
| Vice Cop 11: Nobody ever seemed to be in charge; the riots had all the makings of a massacre—a bureaucratic massacre—and none of the top cops wanted to be around to pick up the tab for it. | |
| No More Excuses 89: When you run from the will of God, you get to pick up the tab. [...] The bad news about rebelling against Him is that in your rebellion, you pick up the tab. |
1. to offer credit, esp. in the context of a period of drinking in a bar.
| Teen-Age Gangs 156: ‘Money John, you got a coke you could trust me for?’ [...] Money John shook his head. ‘Because I don’t have the usual signs “No Credit” on the wall you keep thinking I run tabs here.’. | |
| Wolfe in Sheep’s Clothing 180: ‘I say, would you like me to run a tab?’ ‘Oh, sure, a tab. Yes, a tab’ll be fine.’ ‘Meeting somebody?’ the bartender inquired. | |
| Avalanche 41: But run a tab for me and my men. They’ll let you know who they are. |
2. to start or maintain a line of credit, usu. in a bar.
| in Bird Lives 17: My waiter tells me you’ve run a tab and haven’t signed anything. | |
| N.Y. Mag. 2 May 43: ‘Gamblin’ Jack’ Richardson, [...] if memory serves, [...] was the first person allowed to run a tab there. | |
| Drifter’s Run 60: ‘You wanta pay or run a tab?’ ‘I think I’ll run a tab,’ Cap replied. |