cable
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkeɪ.bəl/
rhymes: -eɪbəl
Forms: form: cables
Etymology: Recorded since c.1205 as Middle English cable, from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum (“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”). Use of the term "cable" to refer to the USD/GBP exchange rate originated in the mid-19th century, when the exchange rate began to be transmitted across the Atlantic by a submarine communications cable.
Senses: glosses: A long object used to make a physical connection.
A strong, large-diameter wire or rope, or something resembling such a rope.
synonyms: word: wire rope
word: cord
word: string
glosses: A long object used to make a physical connection.
An assembly of two or more cable-laid ropes.
glosses: A long object used to make a physical connection.
An assembly of two or more wires, used for electrical power or data circuits; one or more and/or the whole may be insulated.
examples: text: “And now the time of tide has come; the ship casts off her cables; and from the deserted wharf the uncheered ship for Tarshish, all careening, glides to sea.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A long object used to make a physical connection.
A strong rope or chain used to moor or anchor a ship.
coordinate_terms: hawser
examples: text: I tried to watch the movie last night but my cable was out.
text: 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.
ref: 2014 March 15, “Turn it off”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878:
topics: communication
communications
glosses: A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
topics: broadcasting
communication
communications
media
television
glosses: A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
Ellipsis of cable television, broadcast over the above network, not by antenna.
synonyms: cablegram
glosses: A telegram, notably when sent by (submarine) telegraph cable.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: cable length
glosses: A unit of length equal to one tenth of a nautical mile.
topics: nautical
transport
qualifier: unit
glosses: 100 fathoms, 600 imperial feet, approximately 185 m.
topics: business
finance
glosses: The currency pair British Pound against United States Dollar.
topics: architecture
glosses: A moulding, shaft of a column, or any other member of convex, rounded section, made to resemble the spiral twist of a rope.
topics: business
knitting
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: A textural pattern achieved by passing groups of stitches over one another.
Derived terms: anticable
array cable
basic cable
belted cable
booster cable
Bowden cable
cable-actuated
cable box
cable buoy
cablecar
cable-car
cable car
cablecast
cable core
cable drum
cable ferry
cablegami
Cablegate
cable gland
cablegram
cable guy
cable harness
cable internet
cable jack
cable joint
cable jointing
cable knit
cable-knit
cable knitting
cable-laid
cable-laid rope
cableless
cablelike
cable man
cableman
cable modem
cable moulding
cable needle
cable puller
cabler
cable radio
cable release
cablese
cable ship
cable spaghetti
cable station
cable-stayed bridge
cable stitch
cable stripper
cable television
cable terminal
cable theory
cable tidy
cable tie
cable tramway
cable tray
cable TV
cable up
cablevision
cableway
cablework
chain-cable
chain cable
coax cable
coaxial cable
crossover cable
data cable
extension cable
IDE cable
jumper cable
kettle cable
monocable
multicable
nanocable
noncable
octopus cable
power cable
recable
ribbon cable
rollover cable
SATA cable
screened cable
sheathed cable
shielded cable
slip the cable
starter cable
stream cable
suicide cable
uncable
wireless cable
wye cable
Y cable
Related terms: cablet