cable

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

• IPA^(key): /keɪ.bl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

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. (communication) 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.

• wire rope
• cord
• (telegram) cablegram
• (nautical unit) cable length
• See also Thesaurus:string

• (nautical rope) hawser (thinner)

• cablet

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.

• cable guy

• Caleb

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

cable m (plural cables)

1. cable

• calabre, cabre

Attested in 1432 as caabre. From Old French chaable (“cable”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaβle̝/

cable m (plural cables)

1. (material) cable
   • 1432, A. Rodríguez González (ed.), Livro do Concello de Pontevedra (1431-1463). Pontevedra: Museo de Pontevedra, page 69:

     Outrosy, que nenghum seja ousado de amarrar nauio algund a a Ponte desta dita billa nen meter estaqas en ela e o que o contrario fezer peyte de pena por la primeira vez XX marauedises e por la segunda XXX maravedisse e por la tercera que pague perca o caabre ou cordaçon que asy amarrar o dito nauio e fasta dez dias enna cadea

     Also, that nobody dares to moor any ship to the bridge of this town, nor to put stakes in it. Whoever does another thing shall pay as a penalty 20 maravedis for the first time, 30 for the second time, and for the third time he will lose the cable or rope used for mooring the ship, and shall stay up to ten days in prison

   Synonym: cabo

• “caabre” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “cable” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “cabre” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “cable” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “cable” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

• kable, cabul, cabull, kabel, cabil, cabel, cabulle, cabill

Borrowed from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaːbəl/

cable (plural cables)

1. A cable or strong rope (as used in nautical applications)
2. Any kind of rope or cable; a supporting wire.

• English: cable
• Scots: cable

• “cāble (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Borrowed from French câble.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkable/, [ˈkaβle]

cable m (plural cables)

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

• echar un cable