deb

Clipping of debutante or debut.

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• Rhymes: -ɛb

deb (plural debs)

1. (informal) A debutante (a young woman who makes her first formal appearance in society).
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15: Circe]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC, part II , page 422:

     Josie Powell that was, prettiest deb in Dublin. How time flies by!

   • 1989, Michael Pakenham, The Bitter Web, Lewes, Sussex: The Book Guild Ltd, →ISBN, page 41:

     Go back to your debs or little boys if that's what you fancy and leave us hard working girls, the virile, mature and experienced working men of this world.

   • 2021, Harriet Evans, Beloved Girls, London: Headline Review, →ISBN, page 253:

     'The Honourable Hester Bingham,' she told Simon. 'They said she was the most stylish deb of her season. Me and Mama read all about her. That was the first season after the war, you know, and she wote a Hardy Amies dress when she was presented to the King and Queen.'

   • 2022, Shelley Burr, Wake, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 269:

     "After that little crash and burn, I guess my mother thought it would help to give me the same training. Social graces and deportment and all that bullshit. I even had a deb ball."

2. (informal) A debutante ball or debut.

   Synonym: debs (informal)

   • 2017, Gian Sardar, You Were Here, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 143:

     "When I met him at my deb, I fell for him. Wanted nothing more than to marry him. That it happened, even after all those years, felt as if the stars had finally aligned."

3. (slang, dated) A female member of a gang.
   • 1950, Hal Ellson, Tomboy, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 157:

     Then one night Liz showed up at the factory with a scratched face and torn blouse. She had been in a fight at the park with another girl, a deb of the Porto Rican Flyers.

   • 1972, Donald Goines, Black Gangster, Los Angeles, C.A.: Holloway House Publishing Company, published 2004, →ISBN, page 38:

     I want you to take over absolute control of all the debs until Ruby is released. Your main job will be to see that most of the girls take at least two tricks a night someplace where the boys can roll them without too much trouble.

• “deb n.²”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “deb, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• B.Ed., BDE, BED, DBE, EBD, Edb., bed

Shortening of debiel.

deb m (plural debben)

1. (Belgium, offensive, colloquial) Clipping of debiel.

• bed

Unadapted borrowing from English deb.

deb f (invariable)

1. deb, debutante

From Pre-Palauan *ðəbu, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *təbuh, from Proto-Austronesian *təbuS.

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

deb

1. sugar cane

• deb in Palauan Language Online: Palauan-English Dictionary, at tekinged.com.
• deb in Palauan-English Dictionary, at trussel2.com.
• deb in Lewis S. Josephs, Edwin G. McManus, Masa-aki Emesiochel (1977) Palauan-English Dictionary, University Press of Hawaii, →ISBN, page 68.

From Proto-Hmong-Mien *qʷuw (“far”). Cognate with Iu Mien go.

• IPA^(key): /de˥/

deb

1. far