label

Meanings

Noun

• A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
• A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
• A company that sells records.
• A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
• A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
• A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
• A tassel.
• A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.
• A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
• A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
• The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
• In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
• A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.

Verb

• To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
• To give a label to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.
• To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
• To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro

Related

Similar words

• tag, price

Origin

• From Middle English label ("narrow band, strip of cloth"), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā ("torn piece of cloth"), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô, from Proto-Indo-European *leb- ("blade"). Cognate with Old High German lappa ("rag, piece of cloth"), Old English læppa ("skirt, flap of a garment"). More at lap.