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Glite Dictionary
yellow cab

yellow cab

4 2.1
A taxi painted yellow seen in cities like New York
  • noun
  • /ˈjɛloʊ kæb/
  • US
translation icon : taxi amarillo
  • Bloomberg said 4,000 yellow cabs were on the streets when he last checked at 4:30 p.m.
  • yellow cab accidents
  • drive yellow cabs
  • see those yellow cabs

I stopped taking yellow cabs because I value my life.

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Examples

  • A block ahead, a yellow cab waits at a red light.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Harry charged from the building into the late afternoon glare, narrowly avoiding a yellow cab as he raced across the street.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Richard the poet lived in San Francisco, where he drove a yellow cab.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • So, we took a yellow cab to the house, and there was a doorman standing outside.

    Garbo: Where Did You Go? (2024)

  • The estate of the deceased sues the yellow cab company for damages.

    Blog text (20)

  • A yellow cab splashes through puddles and pulls up in front of the house.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The yellow cab pulls up, idles at the curb.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I sat back in the yellow cab as it bounced and plowed through the slush-filled New York streets.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Slowing his speed considerably, he wound his way north among the darting, honking clutch of yellow cabs.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I hailed a yellow cab to take me to the airport on time.

Synonyms

taxi
vsyellow cab
382 1.0

A car with a driver people pay to drive them to a place

is the same service but often recognized by its yellow paint in cities
taxicab
vsyellow cab
18 1.0

A car with a driver that people pay to take them where they want

is the same kind but typically painted yellow in some cities
hackney cab
vsyellow cab
  • UK
6.6

A car you pay to take you where you want in a city

is the same transport type but usually identified by yellow paint in some cities

Surface Forms

yellow cab singular
yellow cabs plural

Morphology

yellow + cab

The meaning 'a taxi painted yellow' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'yellow' (a color) with 'cab' (a vehicle for hire). This is a straightforward adjectival–noun composition found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Yellow cab comes from a simple picture: taxi cars painted bright yellow so people could see the cab quickly in busy streets. Because many taxis used that color, yellow cab became a quick way to say 'a taxi'.