cable

Etymology

Recorded since c.1205, borrowed from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum (“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keɪ.bl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

Noun

cable (plural cables)

1. (material) A long object used to make a physical connection.
   1. A strong, large-diameter wire or rope, or something resembling such a rope.
   2. An assembly of two or more cable-laid ropes.
   3. An assembly of two or more wires, used for electrical power or data circuits; one or more and/or the whole may be insulated.
   4. (nautical) A strong rope or chain used to moor or anchor a ship.
2. (communications) A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.

   I tried to watch the movie last night but my cable was out.

   • 2014 March 15, “Turn it off”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878:

     If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, […]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.

   1. Short for cable television, broadcast over the above network, not by antenna.
3. A telegram, notably when sent by (submarine) telegraph cable.
4. (nautical) A unit of length equal to one tenth of a nautical mile.
5. (unit, chiefly nautical) 100 fathoms, 600 imperial feet, approximately 185 m.
6. (finance) The currency pair British Pound against United States Dollar.
7. (architecture) A moulding, shaft of a column, or any other member of convex, rounded section, made to resemble the spiral twist of a rope.

Verb

cable (third-person singular simple present cables, present participle cabling, simple past and past participle cabled)

1. (transitive) To provide with cable(s)
2. (transitive) To fasten (as if) with cable(s)
3. (transitive) To wrap wires to form a cable
4. (transitive) To send a telegram by cable
5. (intransitive) To communicate by cable
6. (architecture, transitive) To ornament with cabling.

Anagrams

• Caleb

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /ˈka.blə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈka.ble/
• Rhymes: -aβle

Noun

cable m (plural cables)

1. cable

Etymology

Borrowed from French câble

Noun

cable m (plural cables)

1. A cable or cord
2. a wire
3. (colloquial) hand, help