taxi
pronunciation
How to pronounce taxi in British English:
UK [ˈtæksi]
How to pronounce taxi in American English:
US [ˈtæksi]
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- Noun:
- a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money
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- Verb:
- travel slowly
- ride in a taxicab
Word Origin
- taxi
- taxi: [20] Taxi is short for taximeter cab, a term coined around 1890 for a cab fitted with a taximeter, a device for showing the fare to be paid. Taximeter [19] was borrowed from French taximètre, a compound noun formed from taxe ‘charge, tariff’ (a relative of English tax) and mètre ‘meter’.=> tax
- taxi (n.)
- 1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter "automatic meter to record the distance and fare" (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa "tax, charge." An earlier English form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs. Taxi dancer "woman whose services may be hired at a dance hall" is recorded from 1930. Taxi squad in U.S. football is 1966, said to be from a former Cleveland Browns owner who gave his reserves jobs with his taxicab company to keep them paid and available ["Dictionary of American Slang"], but other explanations ("short-term hire" or "shuttling back and forth" from the main team) seem possible.
- taxi (v.)
- 1911, of airplanes, from slang use of taxi (n.) for "aircraft," or from or reinforced "in allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares" [Barnhart]. Related: Taxied; taxiing.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Taxi drivers and bartenders may be talking about gold .
- 2. And I can get across town faster than a taxi or tram .
- 3. Get off the water taxi and walk across the bridge .
- 4. Are the taxi drivers into this stuff yet ?
- 5. They could power electrically driven wheels , letting an aircraft taxi without using its main engines .