cables

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cable.

   Thick steel cables hold the suspension bridge in place.

   Workers buried the fiber-optic cables along the highway.

   Note

   The countable plural names physical lines: steel ropes on a bridge, a ship's mooring cables, or bundled wires carrying power or data. The broadcasting sense rarely takes it, because cable there is short for cable television, a service rather than an object. You subscribe to cable, not to cables. The identical spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so context decides which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cable.

   The diplomat cables Washington whenever tensions in the region rise.

   The rigging team cables each beam to the frame for added stability.

   Note

   Nearly every use takes a direct object: a crew cables a beam to the frame, an electrician cables a building, a reporter cables the news home. The exception is communication, where the verb can stand alone, as in she cables from Cairo each week. With a place or person as object, as in cables Washington, it means sending a message there, not wiring the place.

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