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Glite Dictionary
hackney cab

hackney cab

6.6
A car you pay to take you where you want in a city
  • noun
  • /ˈhæknɪ kæb/
  • UK
translation icon : taxi

Examples

  • I slipped away whilst Step Mama was napping and took a hackney cab to my retreat.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Hackney cabs clatter by, not pausing to see why a respectably dressed woman might be walking alone in a closed neighborhood without a cloak or umbrella at half past nine at night.

    Fiction book (2001)

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

  • The hackney cab pulled up at the curb, ready to pick up passengers.

  • After the concert, we decided to share a hackney cab back home.

Synonyms

cab
vshackney cab
742 1.0

A car that carries people to places for money

is used chiefly in Britain and includes older carriage origins
taxi
vshackney cab
382 1.0

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

is a chiefly British term that also recalls earlier horse drawn forms
taxicab
vshackney cab
18 1.0

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

is the chiefly British traditional name for the same hire service
four-wheeler
vshackney cab
  • Archaic
4 5.1

A vehicle with four wheels like a carriage or taxi that people pay to use

is broader, applying to hired vehicles beyond just four wheeled designs
hackney carriage
vshackney cab
  • UK
7.9

A taxi allowed to pick up people on the street

is the British term for such hired vehicles across history and today
hackney
vshackney cab
  • Archaic
9.9

A horse-drawn carriage that people hire like a taxi

is the British modern term that also applies to motorized hired vehicles
hackney coach
vshackney cab
  • Archaic
9.9

A four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage people hired in cities long ago

is the modern British hire vehicle term that now covers motor cars

How Modern

taxi
382 1.0
hackney cab
  • UK
6.6
hackney
  • Archaic
9.9
hackney coach
  • Archaic
9.9

Surface Forms

hackney cab singular
hackney cabs plural

Morphology

hackney + cab

The meaning 'a taxi for hire' is directly derivable from combining 'hackney' (a carriage for hire) and 'cab' (a vehicle for hire); the two constituent senses overlap and make the overall sense transparent. Although 'hackney' is somewhat archaic and regionally British, the compositional logic is clear to a learner who knows both words, so the expression is transparent.

Etymology

Hackney cab comes from old hired carriages in London: hackney was the name of an area known for horses people could hire, and cab is short for a small city carriage once called a 'cabriolet'. So a hackney cab was a carriage you could hire, and today the phrase means a 'taxi'.