cable

Etymology

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.

noun

1. (material) A long object used to make a physical connection.
   1. A strong, large-diameter wire or rope, or something resembling such a rope.
   2. An assembly of two or more cable-laid ropes.
   3. An assembly of two or more wires, used for electrical power or data circuits; one or more and/or the whole may be insulated.
   4. (nautical) A strong rope or chain used to moor or anchor a ship.
      Coordinate term: hawser
2. (communication) A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
   I tried to watch the movie last night but my cable was out.
   If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, […]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry. 2014-03-15, “Turn it off”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878
   1. (television) Ellipsis of cable television, broadcast over the above network, not by antenna.
3. A telegram, notably when sent by (submarine) telegraph cable.
4. (nautical) A unit of length equal to one tenth of a nautical mile.
5. (unit, chiefly nautical) 100 fathoms, 600 imperial feet, approximately 185 m.
6. (finance) The currency pair British Pound against United States Dollar.
7. (architecture) A moulding, shaft of a column, or any other member of convex, rounded section, made to resemble the spiral twist of a rope.
8. (knitting) A textural pattern achieved by passing groups of stitches over one another.

verb

1. (transitive) To provide with cable(s)
2. (transitive) To fasten (as if) with cable(s)
3. (transitive) To wrap wires to form a cable
4. (transitive) To send a telegram, news, etc., by cable
   Details of a bottle fight in El Morocco were cabled all over the world. 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 89
5. (intransitive) To communicate by cable
6. (architecture, transitive) To ornament with cabling.
7. (knitting) To create cable stitches.