taxi

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A car with a driver that you pay to take you somewhere.

   We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel.

2. 2
   verb

   (Of an aircraft) to move slowly along the ground before taking off or after landing.

   The plane taxied down the runway and waited for permission to take off.

Shortened from taximeter cab, taximeter (“automatic meter that records distance and fare”) from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (whence also English taxameter), coined from Medieval Latin taxa (“tax, charge”). More at tax, task. The aviation sense originally derived from a slang term for training aircraft used for practicing ground operations, which were said to drive around the airfield like a taxicab, and subsequently applied to all aircraft ground movements.

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