cable

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A set of wires covered in plastic that carries electricity or signals.

   Did you put a cable in the wall for the new TV?

2. 2
   noun

   A thick, strong rope made of twisted wire or fibre.

   The cable that held up the bridge was over a metre thick.

3. 3
   noun

   A television service that sends programmes through cables.

   We watched a movie on cable last night.

4. 4
   verb

   To send a message by telegraph, especially overseas.

   He cabled a short message across the Atlantic.

Recorded since c.1205 as Middle English cable, from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum (“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”). Use of the term "cable" to refer to the USD/GBP exchange rate originated in the mid-19th century, when the exchange rate began to be transmitted across the Atlantic by a submarine communications cable.

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