1755 in S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang.

1729 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) I. 453 I had your hasty dab as you call it..your dabs are of more worth to me than folios of letters from any one else.

1735 Ld. Hervey Mem. II. 13 3200l. ever since he was King, besides several little dabs of money.

1762 H. Walpole Lett. to H. Mann (1833) II. 337 A new dab called Anecdotes of Polite Literature.

1788 F. Burney Lett. 29 Jan. I actually asked for this dab of preferment.

1735 W. Pardon Dyche's New Gen. Eng. Dict. Dab,..likewise a..mangled piece of fat meat.

1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 2nd Ser. 24 Dabs of dingy bacon.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Dabs, refuse foots of sugar.

1881 Daily News 7 Sept. 3/4 Barbadoes dabs, 20s. to 21s... Grenada dabs, 17s. to 19s. 6d.

1874 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Dab, an impression in typemetal of a die in course of sinking.

1889 T. B. Reed (in letter) The common process of producing cast ornaments for printing before the introduction of electrotyping was known in English type-foundries as ‘dabbing’. The original woodblock is dropped sharply into a bed of molten lead on the point of cooling. A mould or matrix of the design is thus produced. To produce replicas of the design, the operator strikes this matrix into lead. The result is a ‘cast’ or ‘dab’ in relief, which when mounted can be used to print along with type.

1861 W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 75 The worker of the press has found the..dabbers..unfit for use..He sits down with raw sheep-skin and carded wool, to stuff the balls and tie it round the handle of the dab.

1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. 417 Instead of brick nogging for partitions, cob is used for filling in the frame~work...This sort of work is called rab and dab.

1881 M. E. Braddon Asphodel I. vi. 175 Cottages, with walls of wattle and dab.

1876 R. Browning Pacchiarotto & Other Poems 33 Stick, thou, Son, to paint-brush and dab-pot!

1938 L. MacNeice I crossed Minch vii. 98 While reviewing a novel, Mr. Mackenzie had played dab cricket... He explained to me his system... Consonants mean one; vowels mean two,..a double consonant following a double consonant means that the next man is out for nought.

1946 B. Marshall George Brown's Schooldays 115 He was going to continue his game of dab cricket.

1652 J. Donne, Jr. in J. Donne Paradoxes Ep. Ded. sig. A4 Lelius and Scipio are presented to us, playing at dabstone, before they fought against Hanniball.

a1812 Malone in Todd at Dab Dab-wash.

1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers I. vi. 100 Having had what is called in the district a ‘dab-wash’ of a few articles, forgotten on the regular day.

1881 Richardson in Good Words 51 A few clothes that had just gone through a ‘dab-wash’.

1900 Iron Molders' Jrnl. July 393/2 Wi' my trowel an' my swab I can dae the very dab—But the dram is what I'll never, never swallow.

1997 Daily Mail (Nexis) 25 Oct. 75 Whit are we gaun tae dae tae smarten ye up a sicht mair? Here's the verra dab: this bootlace tie wid look a treat on a strappin' loon like yersel.

2018 @Peasweat2 18 May in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Audiobooks and long walks, the very dab!

1577 W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1878) iii. iii. ii. 20 The plaice, the but, the turbut, dorreie, dab, &c.

1620 T. Venner Via Recta iv. 72 The Dabbe or little Plaice is of the same nature.

1778 T. Pennant Tour in Wales I. 20 Dabs visit us in November.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 165/2 The fish fried by street dealers is known as ‘plaice dabs’ and ‘sole dabs’, which are merely plaice and soles, ‘dab’ being a common word for any flat fish.

1886 R. C. Leslie Sea-painter's Log x. 193 A dab or plaice soon getting pale-coloured when lying upon a white surface.

1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads (1884) xxvi. 203 In the deeper water the dab-darters are often hard at work..the ‘dart’..is like the head of a large rake with the teeth set vertically.

1876 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Words Whitby Dab-fish, all kinds of flat fish.

1691 Athenian Mercury 4 No. 3 Qu. 8 [Love is] such a Dab at his Bow and Arrows.

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Dab, expert, exquisite in Roguery..He is a Dab at it, He is well vers'd in it.

1711 W. King et al. Vindic. Sacheverell 83 The Dr. is charg'd with being a great Dab, as the Boys say, for he plays on Sundays.

1743 H. Fielding Ess. Conversat. in Misc. I. 173 (To fetch a Phrase from School..) great Dabs at this kind of Facetiousness.

1759 O. Goldsmith Bee 6 Oct. 3 A third [writer] is a dab at an index.

1845 W. M. Thackeray Punch in East iv I wish to show I am a dab in history.

1874 A. Helps Social Pressure (1875) v. 69 I am ‘a dab’, as we used to say at Eton, at suggesting subjects for essays.

1812 Sporting Mag. 39 16 Those who had been accustomed to a downy dab.

1819 J. H. Vaux New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Memoirs II. 166 Dab, a bed.

1823 W. T. Moncrieff Tom & Jerry iii. iii. (Farmer) Vhen ve've had the liquor, ve'll..all go to our dabs.

1885 W. Rhind's Trade Circular A beautiful smooth ground, which..will stand the acid bath better than any dabbed ground.

1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 577/2 The wound itself does not require..washing and sponging and dabbing.

1874 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Dabbing-machine, the machine employed in casting large metal type.

1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos vi. (R.) I creping held with crokid hands the mountaynes toppe, Encombrid in my clothes that dabbing down from me did droppe.

1600 R. Armin Foole vpon Foole sig. C2^v Hee droopt downe..as heauy as if a leaden Plummet..had fallen on the earth dab.

1884 Ruskin in Pall Mall Gaz. 10 Dec. 11/1 One who sharpens his pencil point, instead of seizing his biggest brush and going dab at the mountains with splotches of colour.