dab3 (dab)

and a. [Origin uncertain; perhaps connected with dabl and dabble. Usually supposed to be a 'corruption' of adept.] I. n. An expert; a knowing or skilful man; a dabster. [Colloq.] I am no dab at your fine sayings. Sterne , Tristram Shandy, iv. 15. One writer... excels at... a title-page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 1. II. a. Clever; skilled: as, a dab hand at a thing. [Colloq.] da ballo (dä bäl lộ). [It.: da, An instrument consisting of a ma of cotton-wool sewed or tied in silk or leather and with or without a wooden han dle, used by etchers to spread and unite grounds laid on metal plates; by copperplate and wood-engravers to ink the surface of wood blocks and engraved plates, in order to take impre ions from them; and by painters on china to produce smooth backgrounds in color. An agate burnisher, and a dab ber, which are used for taking proof-impre ions of the wood IMG:content-1969.jpg:[blocks in formation] monly in the sense of taking the differential coefficient), A of differencing, and ∇ of the Hamilton i an operator. Many analysts avoid the use of the letter in other senses than these. A letter subjoined to any of these signs of operation shows what is taken as the independent variable, and exponents show the number of times the operations are to be performed. Differentiation (especially when relative to the time) was formerly indicated in England by a dot over the sign of the quantity to be differentiated, this being the notation of Newton's fluxional calculus. (d) In the mnemonic words of logic, the sign of reduction to dari i.4. As an abbreviation: (a) In Eng. reckoning (d. or d.), an abbreviation of denarius, the original name for the English penny: as, £ s. d., pounds, shillings, and pence; 2s. 1d., two shillings and one penny. (b) Before a date (d.), an abbreviation of died. (c) In dental formulas, an abbreviation of deciduous, prefixed without Encombrid in my clothes that dabbing down from me did droppe. Phaer, Æneid, vi.