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Nab   /næb/   Listen
Nab

verb
(past & past part. nabbed; pres. part. nabbing)
1.
Tag the base runner to get him out.
2.
Take into custody.  Synonyms: apprehend, arrest, collar, cop, nail, pick up.
3.
Seize suddenly.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Nab" Quotes from Famous Books



... up with a round turn, you and your newspapers. I'll bet you won't get further than Poitiers before the police will nab you." ...
— Parisians in the Country - The Illustrious Gaudissart, and The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac

... I must talk with you! And it will be better for you, my man—" a sharp metallic click told that the speaker had turned the key in the lock behind him—"to step in here with me. You needn't be afraid I'm going to nab you; I've got a lay better than hooking you for the dock. As for the others, they can go, ...
— Half A Chance • Frederic S. Isham

... pertater, is it, for a superintendent t' lay into a chap at Sunday School for things what he done outside? S'pose I float Tinribs's puddlin' tub down the creek by accident, with Doon's baby in it when I ain't thinkin', is it square fer him to nab me in Sunday School, an' whack me fer it, pretendin' all the time it's 'cause I stuck ...
— The Gold-Stealers - A Story of Waddy • Edward Dyson

... the very end of summer. We can't do a thing till then; have to lie low and wait. You need money, I heard you say; I suppose you're afraid to hock this twinkler"—touching the pearl pendant. "Police probably watching the pawnshops and would nab you. Well, I'll stake you till ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott

... retreats in England; Great Langdale, and Blea Tarn at the head of Little Langdale, immortalised in 'The Excursion'; the upper end of Ullswater, and Kirkstone Pass; and all the mountain tracks and paths round Grasmere and Rydal, especially the old upper road between them, under Nab Scar, his favourite walk during his later years, where he "composed hundreds of verses." There is scarcely a rock or mountain summit, a stream or tarn, or even a well, a grove, or forest-side in all that neighbourhood, which is not imperishably ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight

... "You know, there's only one big snag in this sort of talk. I've sorted the whole thing out before, and you always come up against this brick wall. Where are they, these observers, or scholars, or spies or whatever they are? Sooner or later we'd nab one of them. You know, Scotland Yard, or the F.B.I., or Russia's secret police, or the French Surete, or Interpol. This world is so deep in police, counter-espionage outfits and security agents that an alien would slip up in time, no matter how much he'd been trained. Sooner or later, ...
— I'm a Stranger Here Myself • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... mercy's name to take a shot at some of the bigger brutes, for I thought that I could grapple with the little ones; but either they didn't or wouldn't hear me; so away I pulled right out towards the Nab. Thinks I to myself, 'Perhaps the people in the lightship will lend a helping hand to an old seaman;' but not a bit of it. When they saw me coming with my train of forked-tailed brutes after me, they sung out ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston

... victim was the Nab of Arkiko. He had accompanied the Emperor to Godjam, when, without reason given, the Emperor cast him into prison and loaded him with chains. It was only on the representation of several influential merchants, ...
— A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia - With Some Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, - His Country and People • Henry Blanc

... and some another. Sapskull said, "We must make her merry with some beer." Hardy said, "We must tie her down." But I proposed to ask her to sit for her picture as a guy, and then to carry her off. Master Quidd was, however, more cunning than any of us, and said, "I know how to nab her; I have a plan, and a capital one ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... come in," answered Jack stoutly. "If you hear any one coming to steal the fruit, you shout, 'Guard turn out!' and we'll nab 'em." ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery

... mean? Yes, wasn't it? And I made a touch-down and won the game. I was awfully afraid at one time that that Woodby quarter-back was going to nab me; that's why I made for the corner ...
— Behind the Line • Ralph Henry Barbour

... "Now's the time to nab him!" said Turner, as he carried the report to Archer. "'Tonio has managed to elude Malloy's party, probably by leading them off on a false scent, but now we have blood to follow. Let me send out a platoon, mounted, and we may nail the gang ...
— Tonio, Son of the Sierras - A Story of the Apache War • Charles King

... make out in the big drive?" asked Frank. "We kept hoping all the time that you fellows would be along and nab us ...
— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall

... at once, sir. Leave the door of the gallery open and the light on. Fish and me will stand guard over the stuff till you come back, so in case the man is in one of them flues and tries to bolt out at this end, we can nab him before he can get to ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... are flirting with success And making plans to nab it, Some other chap, who fusses less, May rush right ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher

... little man, I can't do it! You must stick to me, else I'll be the lonesomest feller in all the world. We'll hold on here a spell, an' then hustle once more. It must be we'll find somebody who'll give us work, providin' the detectives don't nab me." ...
— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis

... said. "From natural piety, of course! I know every detail here as well as if I had lived here, and I have walked in thought a hundred times with the poet, to and fro in the laurelled walks of the garden, up the green shoulder of Nab Scar, and sat in the little parlour, while the fire leapt on the hearth, and heard him 'booing' his verses, to be copied by ...
— At Large • Arthur Christopher Benson

... that they cannot feed, then turn them into tutu, and the result is that they are immediately attacked with apoplectic symptoms, and die unless promptly bled. Nor does bleeding by any means always save them. The worst of it is, that when empty they are keenest after it, and nab it in spite of one's most frantic appeals, both verbal and flagellatory. Some say that tutu acts like clover, and blows out the stomach, so that death ensues. The seed-stones, however, contained in the dark pulpy berry, are poisonous ...
— A First Year in Canterbury Settlement • Samuel Butler

... all's pleasant, Nothing comes amiss to us; Hare, rabbit, snare, nab it; Cock, or hen, or kite; Tom cat, with strong fat, A dainty supper is to us; Hedge-hog and sedge-frog To stew is our delight; Bow, wow, with angry bark My lady's dog assails us; We sack him up, and clap A stopper on his din. Now pop him ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... couldn't do that! I guess I can do ut fer ye. Ut's jes' a leetle ticklish. I reckon ef yer pa wuz to nab me ut'd go ...
— A Reversible Santa Claus • Meredith Nicholson

... about to say, 'my dear Watson', Captain Strawn's boys out at the Selim house will have their chance to nab our man—or woman—unless Dexter Sprague ignores my warning, pretends to have the papers himself, and tries to carry on the blackmail scheme, which he undoubtedly knew all about and which, most probably, he encouraged Nita to undertake—the 'friend' she ...
— Murder at Bridge • Anne Austin

... upon you![FN263] Bring us of these dyed clothes." Thereupon they brought him a dyed robe[FN264] and he donned it and sat discoursing gaily with Ja'afar and jesting with him. Then said he, "Allow us to be a partaker in your pleasures, and give us to drink of your Nabz."[FN265] So they brought him a silken robe and poured him out a pint, when he said, "We crave your indulgence, for we have no wont of this." Accordingly Ja'afar ordered a flagon of Nabz be set before him, that he might drink whatso he pleased. Then, having anointed himself with perfumes, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... I found out where you wor stopping I ran off directly on Mr. M'Kail's little business. You'll excuse the liberty, sir; but we must all mind our professions; though, indeed, sir, if you b'lieve me, I'd rather nab a rhyme than a gintleman any day; and if I could get on the press I'd quit the ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... skipper, "if he's pretty cute he may p'rhaps bluff a skipper or two; but I guess he'll very soon be euchred—a man-o'-war'll nab him afore he can say 'Jack Robinson'. And now," he continued, "about you 'uns. From things said while you was spinnin' that yarn of the mutiny I seemed to get a sort of notion that you'd like me to put ye ashore as soon as possible. Is ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood

... the sheriff, herding a gent in ahead of him. And who d'you think that gent was? It was Reeve! Yes, sir, the old sheriff had stepped out and grabbed his man. He wasn't there quick enough to stop the killing of Armstrong, but he got there fast enough to nab Reeve. Seems that when he was riding up to the house he heard a shot fired, and then he seen a man run out of the house and jump on his hoss, and the sheriff didn't stop to ask no questions. He just out with his gat and drills the gent's hoss. And while ...
— Bull Hunter • Max Brand

... was saying, but this was the idea: 'All of you fellows that chase outlaws make too much fuss about it.' Well, some of us do, though the newspapers and the wind-bags that follow us around make ten times the fuss we do. He went on to say that the only way to nab a horse-thief or an express robber was to go right up to him, don't you know, like the little boy went up to the sign-post that he thought ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... Banned From Window. Nab Store Keeper." We read on. The snickersnee swings towards the vitals of Hollywood. "Movie Magnate Charges Work of Art Cut; Sues Censors. ...
— Nonsenseorship • G. G. Putnam

... the event. It is an Englishman's way. Still we were fifty miles from England, but wave after wave rose, dashed, and was left behind, till the sun got weary in his march, and hung, in the west, a great red globe. My course had been taken for the Nab light, which is in the entrance towards Portsmouth, but the Channel tide, crossing my path twice, could carry the yawl fast, yet secretly, first right, then left, and both ...
— The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" • John MacGregor

... get down below the car and crawl in under the truck where you can't be seen. Evidently that cuss isn't here, but he's likely to come by and by. If so, nab him if you can, and if you can't, fire two shots. Mosely, are ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... in here and starts after Jerkline Jo. It's doubtful if the thickhead will think to memorize what's on his copy, as I have done. Even if he does think to, he won't have time to do it before you nab him. He's dense—he wouldn't learn it in ...
— The She Boss - A Western Story • Arthur Preston Hankins

... two things to do," said the boy rancher. "One is to get our cattle back, and the other is to nab the rustlers. But it's more important to get ...
— The Boy Ranchers on the Trail • Willard F. Baker

... besides. I have a little system of my own, which appears by no means a bad one. Just see the triumph of my method of induction, which Gevrol ridiculed so much. I'd give a hundred francs if he were only here now. But no; my Gevrol wants to nab the man with the earrings; he is just capable of doing that. He is a fine fellow, this Gevrol, a famous fellow! How much do you give him a year for ...
— The Widow Lerouge - The Lerouge Case • Emile Gaboriau

... to the finish. But you're a man of sense, Rockamore, and you know you've got to help me out of this for your own sake. I tell you, some one's on to the whole game, and they're just sitting back and waiting for the right moment to nab us. They not only learn every move we make—they anticipate them! It's every man for himself, now, and I warn you that ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... watch the station here and be on the safe side in case she slows down, and the other two will go down in one of the machines and keep an eye out at Skiddyunk. They might get on there. We'll probably beat you to Skiddyunk, but if we don't, nab 'em if they get on. They're going to try to get away from these parts, I ...
— Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... green 'uns!" he cried, sinking his voice to a cautious pitch. "Don't you fight here; why, the 'crushers' will nab yer afore yer can strike a blow comfortably! If fight yer must, coom up here on the fo'c's'le, and then you can fight away theer to yer 'art's content, without nobody not ...
— Young Tom Bowling - The Boys of the British Navy • J.C. Hutcheson

... wanted to get the blood-money," Corp said apologetically, "he could nab you any day. He ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie

... idea. He is so ruse, this Strangwise. You are quite right, Bellward, he never admits himself beaten. And he never is! But tell me," she added, "what about Nur-el-Din? They'll nab her, eh?" ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... friend about his ramble over the hills, yonder, up above that homely bench called 'Rest, and be Thankful,' on the crest of Loughrigg Fell. He was beginning to learn the names of the hills already. Yonder darkling brow, rugged, gloomy looking, was Nab Scar; yonder green slope of sunny pasture, stretching wide its two arms as if to enfold the valley, was Fairfield; and here, close on the left, as he faced the lake, were Silver Howe and Helm Crag, with that stony excrescence on the summit ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... seemed as though he wouldn't mind going a hundred miles out to sea in an old shoe to nab a ship for the firm. If the business had been his own and all to make yet, he couldn't have done more in that way. And now . . . all at once . . . like this! Thinks I to myself: 'Oho! a rise in the screw—that's the trouble—is it?' ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... trying to drive down the road and search for the ball at the same time. "It's risky, but if I can get the car under it and we can hop out in time, it should crash through the roof. That ought to slow it down enough for us to nab it." ...
— The Big Bounce • Walter S. Tevis

... him as a night watchman. On other men's dures it knocks an' runs away; an' on the dures of other men it knocks, an' whin they come out it hits thim over the head with an ax. But eviry wan has an opporchunity. So yez had better kape your eye skinned an' nab it before it shlips by ...
— If You Don't Write Fiction • Charles Phelps Cushing

... you the whole rigmarole," replied the genial ass. "Martin was at the station yesterday, crawling after Miss King, when up comes a sandy-whiskered hound of a contractor, name of M'Nab, to see about the specifications of the new fence between us and Nalrooka; and this (fellow)'s idea of getting on the soft side of Montgomery, about the fence, was to nearly break his neck running to tell him that Price, and Thompson, ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

... guess that wins the fire-brick necklace! Wouldn't it be swell to travel everywhere and nab some famous crook!" ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... about all we expect to do is to scout around, and see if we can pick up any information with the aid of our marine glasses. It's hardly to be expected that two boys would take the chance of trying to nab a couple of reckless thieves, who ...
— The Aeroplane Boys Flight - A Hydroplane Roundup • John Luther Langworthy

... Athelstones would get against the paper. He'd take just one look at it and then catch the first train for Chicago. Perhaps he could get a job there digging sewers, or selling ribbons in Fields', or start a school of journalism. Any old thing, if they didn't nab him and put him in Bloomingdale before he could get away.... He made for the street again. He wouldn't look at the Banner. What malignant little devils the types were when they shouted your sins, not another fellow's, from ...
— The False Gods • George Horace Lorimer

... do. Suppose you catch him presently? How would the law stand? A man goes mad and commits a murder. Then you nab him and he's as sane as a judge. You can't hang him for what he did when he was off his head, and you can't shut him up in a lunatic ...
— The Red Redmaynes • Eden Phillpotts

... old Glasgow; "Ye're just daft on thae points, Duncan M'Nab: why, man alive! yer' nae people at hame, much less here, where you are as the least plash flung from the paddle-wheel below us to the braid stream on which it drops to mingle with its waters; a lesson ye may tak profit by. Ye've neither country, nor laws, nor government ...
— Impressions of America - During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Tyrone Power

... Drinking. A lot of things, my boy. They'll nab you if you hang around here till three o'clock. You saw her go in, ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... blank! Wear ship and drive back to the fork o' the waters," shouted the old man. "Hull down an' under though he be, we'll nab yon picaro, with his ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine

... easy one," answered Frank. "Do you see that big lobster of a boat on the other side? That looks as though it would carry almost a dozen anyway. We won't need any more than that to nab the Huns, because we'll have the advantage of the surprise if our plans go through ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

... before," continued Raffles. "He never was a good sleeper, and his ears reach to the street. I wouldn't like to say how often I was chased by him in the small hours! I believe he knew who it was toward the end, but Nab was not the man to accuse you of what he ...
— A Thief in the Night • E. W. Hornung

... ti'a sis ir re cog'ni za ble par a di si'ac al gu ber na to'ri al par a pher na'li a el ee mos'y na ry ver i si mil'i tude pol y cot y le'don tin tin nab u la'tion het er o ge'ne ous su per e rog'a tive hi e ro glyph'ic al pu sil la nim'i ty hyp o chon dri'ac al phan tas ma go'ri a his to ri og'ra pher ob'li ga to ri ly in dis'so lu ble'ness id i o syn'cra sy in dis'pu ta ble'ness ir re me'di a ble' er y si pel'a tous ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... bloody cannibals altogether. Ten to one, men, if you go ashore, you will get into some infernal row, and that will be the end of you; for if those tattooed scoundrels get you a little ways back into their valleys, they'll nab you—that you may be certain of. Plenty of white men have gone ashore here and never been seen any more. There was the old Dido, she put in here about two years ago, and sent one watch off on liberty; they never were heard of again for a week—the ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... of the Holy City is "Madinat al-Nab)" the City of the Prophet, of old Yasrib (Yathrib) the Iatrippa of the Greeks (Pilgrimage, ii. 119). The reader will remember that there are two "Yasribs:" that of lesser note being near Hujr in ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... cried the young blasphemer, "are you asleep? Beg your pardon for riding you over on the bridge. Didn't know you—course shouldn't have done it—thought it was a lawyer with a writ—dressed in black, you know. Gad! thought it was Nathan come to nab me." And Mr. William laughed incoherently. It was evident that he was ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... enthusiastic admirer of the game, and one way or another did much to encourage it by his presence on the field at all the big matches, and if any of the lads, such as myself, Brown, Rose, Wilson, or M'Nab wanted away to play in a big affair, a hint reaching the governor's ears to that effect was amply sufficient. The manager, however, was of a different sort, he hated football like poison. He even relegated the grand game to a pastime suitable for pure and unadulterated lunatics, those, ...
— Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches • David Drummond Bone

... Immediately the rigging of the ships was black with sailors, but there was not a sound heard except an occasional command—sharp, short and imperative—or the shrill order of the boatswain's whistle. The next moment, the Queen's yacht shot past the fleet and literally led it out to sea. Near the Nab, the royal yacht hove to and the whole fleet sailed past her, carried swiftly out by a fine westerly breeze. Her Majesty waved her handkerchief as they passed and it is said she wept. If she had not wept she would have been less than ...
— An Orkney Maid • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... man out between second and third and getting the ball over to Chance in time to nab the ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers

... seal that father and I ever caught, and the only one that ever got away from us after we had housed it, was Nab. Although father has been catching seals for zoological gardens and circuses almost as long as I can remember, and knows all their tricks both in water and on land, yet Nab was ...
— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten

... we'll nab her if she is," said I heartily. "She's not been through that gate in the last half-hour, for it takes me that to drink yon jug dry, and I started with it full. But I'll ask the maids. Mother and our Kate are at the parson's ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough

... one here to nab us; Jim's gone off: But I'd as lief be through with it, and away, ...
— Krindlesyke • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

... let me add—I fear the wary foe Would nab your regiment napping on the field. You have forgotten, Colonel—not so fast— I am the man that slept upon his post.' Our bluff old Colonel laughed and turned away; Ten minutes later came his kind reply— A basketful of luxuries ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon

... eyes somehow gave you the idea that they were trying to glance back over his shoulder, as if he feared pursuit. Some said that old Druce was in constant terror of assassination, while others held that he knew the devil was on his track and would ultimately nab him. ...
— Revenge! • by Robert Barr

... out of town," persisted the other. "If you speak quick we can nab them all, and then I'll let you go. You understand, we won't do a thing to you, if you'll come thru and tell us who put you up to this. We know it wasn't you that planned it; it's the big ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... don't know what pluck is, neither of you," replied Edward. "What would you do if a policeman should nab you?" ...
— Oscar - The Boy Who Had His Own Way • Walter Aimwell

... in the houses and streets. Man-traps are laid under the pavements,—sometimes they are secretly introduced under your very table or bed,—and if anything is said against that piece of machinery called the main-spring, or against the head engineer, the trap will nab you and fly away with you, like the spider that carried off Margery Mopp. If a number of people get together to discuss the meaning of and the reasons for the existence of the main-spring, or any of the big wheels immediately connected therewith, the ground under them will sometimes ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various

... sagacity more than human. (Robinson gave a little groan.) Aha," cried Miles, "the beggar has burned his finger. I'm glad of it. Why should I be the only sufferer by his thundering irons? 'Here is a lark,' said I, 'we'll nab this dark lantern—won't we, Hazy?' 'Rather,' said Hazy. 'Wait till I get my pistols, and I'll give you a cutlass, George,' says Tom Yates. I forget who George was; but he said he was of noble blood, and I think myself he was some relation to the King-of-trumps, ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... to nab 'em both, then-our last chance, maybe. The game is up. That fine gentleman has smoked it." He was angry beyond measure. Their plans were far from ripe, and yet to delay longer now that their vigilance was detected was, perhaps, to allow Sir Richard to ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini

... king of hosts, king of the country of Assyria, 2. who trusteth in the god Ashur and the goddess Blit, 3. on whom the god Nebo (Nab) and the goddess Tasmetu 4. have bestowed all-hearing ears 5. and his possession of eyes that are clearsighted, 6. and the finest results of the art of writing 7. which, among the kings who have gone before, 8. no one ...
— The Babylonian Story of the Deluge - as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh • E. A. Wallis Budge

... officers. "We've just taken him from your brother. He's been stirring trouble with his speeches and has got to be quieted. But we'll have him to-day, for he's to be married, and a scouting party is on the road to nab him ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... take place in the front room at ten o'clock, when it will be quite dark. You, I, and the policemen will hide in what was the bedroom, and listen to what Wrent has to say to Mrs. Clear. We'll give him rope enough to hang himself, sir, and then pounce out and nab him." ...
— The Silent House • Fergus Hume

... or catch unawares. To nab the teaze; to be privately whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in the pillory. To nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal linen left out ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... o' the woods, boys," answered Herb Heal, his voice vibrating. "A fine young bull-moose, as sure as this is a land of liberty. I dropped him by a logon on the east bank of Fir Pond, about four miles from here. I started out early, hoping to nab a deer; for I had no fresh meat left, and I didn't want to have a bare larder when you fellows came along. But the woods were awful still. There didn't seem to be anything bigger than a field-mouse travelling. Then all of a sudden I ...
— Camp and Trail - A Story of the Maine Woods • Isabel Hornibrook

... arrested. The trouble is that if I arrest him, the people higher up will know it and will escape before I can get his confession and the warrants. I'd much rather have the whole thing done at once. Isn't there some way we can get the whole Stacey crowd together, make the arrest of Douglas and nab the guilty ones in the case, all together without giving them a chance to escape or to shield the ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve

... them ever able to be really sure that bandits were actually within a few miles. For the whole body of yeomanry, peasants and slaves, even the slaves of those proprietors keenest on the scent of the brigands and most eager to nab them, were leagued to bamboozle, thwart and oppose their masters and betters, and to aid the outlaws, to keep them posted on everything said and proposed by the loyal inhabitants, and to assist them in outwitting the authorities, the constabulary and all persons ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... spirits; lit. that which nobbles or gets hold of you. Nobble is the frequentative form of nab. No doubt there is an allusion to the bad spirits frequently sold at bush public-houses, but if a teetotaler had invented the word he could not have invented one ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... I. "Then we are sure to nab them. Given time and a pair of low, restless German thieves, I will wager anything, our hands will be upon them before the month is over. I only hope, when we do come across them, it will not be to find their betters too much mixed up with their devilish practices." And I related to him ...
— A Strange Disappearance • Anna Katharine Green

... though I'd been inside that Scotchman's skin, and I know what he'll do next. He found out I'd gone abroad, and looked for a motive; he found out about von Heumann and his mission, and there was his motive cut-and-dried. Great chance—to nab me on a new job altogether. But he won't do it, Bunny; mark my words, he'll search the ship and search us all, when the loss is known; but he'll search in vain. And there's the skipper beckoning the whippersnapper to his cabin: the fat will be in ...
— The Amateur Cracksman • E. W. Hornung

... as it goes. I'm ready to give up the brat, but will his father keep faith? Perhaps he'll have the police on hand ready to nab me." ...
— Frank and Fearless - or The Fortunes of Jasper Kent • Horatio Alger Jr.

... nab them two chaps I shall get promotion," he ses; "and it's a fi'-pun note to anybody that helps me. I wish I ...
— Sailor's Knots (Entire Collection) • W.W. Jacobs

... shall tell you What you, perhaps, forget befel you, By way of horary inspection, 985 Which some account our worst erection. With that he circles draws, and squares, With cyphers, astral characters; Then looks 'em o'er, to und'erstand 'em, Although set down hob-nab, at random. 990 Quoth he, This scheme of th' heavens set, Discovers how in fight you met At Kingston with a may-pole idol, And that y' were bang'd both back and side well; And though you overcame the bear, 995 The dogs beat you at Brentford fair; Where ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... M'Nab remarks (Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, vol xi. p. 292) that the tendrils of Amp. Veitchii bear small globular discs before they have came into contact with any object; and I have since observed the same fact. These discs, however, increase greatly in size, if they press against ...
— The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants • Charles Darwin

... any other English poet's home since Shakespeare; and few homes, certainly, have been moulded into such close accordance with their inmates' nature. The house, which has been altered since Wordsworth's day, stands looking southward, on the rocky side of Nab Scar, above Rydal Lake. The garden was described by Bishop Wordsworth immediately after his uncle's death, while every terrace-walk and flowering alley spoke of the poet's loving care. He tells of the "tall ash-tree, in which a thrush ...
— Wordsworth • F. W. H. Myers

... nab of the Harmanbeck, If we mawnd Pannam, lap, or Ruff-peck, Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans, Or els he sweares by the light-mans, To put our stamps in the Harmans, The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harmanbeck If we heaue a booth ...
— Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs - and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] • John S. Farmer

... lift him all I didn't want, and set a trap to nab him, but by me word he was too smart ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... the Nab are the gates of the promise, Their mothers to them—and to us it's our wives. I've sailed forty years, and—By God it's upon us! Down royals, Down top'sles, down, down, ...
— Songs of Action • Arthur Conan Doyle

... did the fellow go?" said the watchman, anticipative of half-a-crown. "I will run after him in a trice, your honour: I warrant I nab him." ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... "we must bestir ourselves or those fellows may nab us after all. Jump down into the gig, cast Jose adrift, and bid him come aboard instantly; we have not a moment ...
— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... muffled up his anger pretty well, He said, "I have a notion, and that notion I will tell; I will nab this gay young sorter, terrify him into fits, And get my gentle wife to chop him into ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... the Battery to Harlem any time if you held a little money in front of his nose. He's been fooled up to the eyes with a faked-up message that he's to deliver secretly to some faked-up crooks out West. He's just about starting away on the train now. And that's where the police nab him—running away from the murder he's pulled in his room here to-night. Looks kind of bad for Nicky Viner—eh? We should worry! It cost a hundred dollars and his ticket. Cheap, wasn't it? I guess you're worth that ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... picketing my headquarters are so crude as to be almost laughable. This base has served its purpose and we were ready to abandon it in any event, but I couldn't resist the temptation to let you almost nab us. The three men whom you will find here are agents who failed in their duty. If you are interested in learning the method of their execution, you might take to heart the words of your colleague, Dr. Bird: 'The clue ...
— Astounding Stories, February, 1931 • Various

... attended a cattle-show which pleased me much: some very fine cattle competed for the different prizes. There is a good walk above the town which, commands a fine view of the distant country. I walked to Dunedern, the mansion of Sir Allan M'Nab, who made such a formidable stand for the constitution against the rebels L.J. ...
— Journal of a Voyage across the Atlantic • George Moore

... out to call A tidy trap, that he mid ride To zee the glassen house, an' all The lot o' things a-stow'd inside. "Here, Boots, come here," cried he, "I'll dab A sixpence in your han' to nab Down street a tidy little cab." "A feaere," the boots then cried; "I'm there," the man replied. "The glassen pleaece, your quickest peaece," Cried ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes

... Hab or nab.—That is, according to Nares, have or have not; subsequently abridged into hab, nab. Hob or nob is explained by him to mean "Will you have a glass of wine or not?" Hob, nob is applied by Shakspeare to another alternative, viz. give or take (Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 • Various

... that fellow Barker," he ordered curtly. "I'll send Reed up to team with you. Don't let him get away. Nab him if he ...
— Midnight • Octavus Roy Cohen

... asleep," counseled The Sky Pilot. "Two of us can tackle this Bridge and hand him the k.o. quick. Eddie and Soup Face had better attend to that. Blackie can nab The Kid an' I'll annex Miss Abigail Prim. The lady with the calf we don't want. We'll tell her we're officers of the law an' that she'd better duck with her live stock an' keep her trap shut if she don't want to get mixed up with ...
— The Oakdale Affair • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... hands of the Nab-men—I see it all clear enough; and you have given a very concise, but comprehensive picture of your own situation; but don't despair, man, you will yet find all right, be assured; put yourself under my guidance, let the world wag ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... thought a lot about that prying into his things—pretty bad show, really, you know. (Going to the left window) I wonder if they'll ever nab him? ...
— Night Must Fall • Williams, Emlyn

... very sorry, particular as you seem so kindly disposed; but, in my humble opinion, he's a artful young dodger, and this 'ere job has been planned ever so long, and he's connived at it, and has hooked it along with his pals. I knows 'em, but we'll soon nab him; and if so be as you'll be so kind as to let me take down in writin' all you knows about 'J. Cole,' which is his name, I'm informed, where you took him from, his character, and previous career, it will help considerable in laying hands on him; ...
— J. Cole • Emma Gellibrand

... may be the troopers are after the Yaquis. I sure hope so, for the imps are going to be hard enough to nab once they get up in the foothills and mountains. We'll need the help of the troopers ...
— The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians - or, Trailing the Yaquis • Willard F. Baker

... rule, you know,—I confess you duped me neatly this afternoon,—that I supposed you were wise and only afraid that I'd give you what you deserve.... If they had sent any one but that stupid ass, Hickey, to nab me, I'd be in the cooler now. As it was, you kindly selected the very best kind of a house for my purpose; I went straight up to the roofs and out through a ...
— The Brass Bowl • Louis Joseph Vance

... Moslems apply "Nab!" to Mohammed it is in the peculiar sense of "prophet" ({Greek})one who speaks before the people, not one who predicts, as such foresight was adjured by the Apostle. Dr. A. Neubauer (The Athenum ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... It's a good dodge, a very neat dodge, and if Sawney hadn't been at the station, Mr. Joseph Wilmot would have given us the slip as neatly as ever a man did yet. But if Mr. Thomas Tibbles is true, we shall nab him, and bring him home as quiet as ever any little boy was took to school by his mar and par. If Mr. Tibbles is true,—and as he don't know too much about the business, and don't know anything about the extra reward, or the evidence that's turned up at Winchester,—I ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... goods will be sour and hurt the business, if the lot gets out under the trade-mark. The best thing to do with it is to send it to the coal heap, for if you try to get your money back at a Front Street auction room, some hand-cart syndicate will nab it and cut your price. They'll undersell the direct trade, and when you have finished writing an explanation to the men on the road, you'd wish you had eaten the whole ...
— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent

... Besides, you fellows don't gain anything by all this jawing. You've been at it for an hour, and you're more tangled up now than when you started. My motto with a case of this kind is just to sit quiet and watch it; and pretty soon the rat thinks the coast is clear, and pokes out his head, and you nab him." ...
— The Gloved Hand • Burton E. Stevenson

... "I shall nab Baby's bronchitis-kettle," Hugh announced, "and make a distiller, and we can begin to-morrow. You girls will have to help me, for I must watch the distilling all the time, and someone must keep ...
— The Happy Adventurers • Lydia Miller Middleton



Words linked to "Nab" :   baseball game, tag, prehend, clutch, baseball, seize



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