Quranic root
قوب
q · w · b
A hollowed or rounded cavity, indentation, or opening; the root centers on making or becoming concave.
The lexical development extends from hollowing and leaving impressions to pitting, peeling, uprooting, the opening of an egg, and related objects or measures.
- Maqāyīs · row 3889
- Lane · entry 9070
- Lane · entry 9072
- Lane · entry 9073
- Lane · entry 9076
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَابٌ
qābun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
The portion of a bow between the handgrip and its curved extremity; hence, the measure or distance of a bow. In the Quranic expression, the distance of two bows or two bow-portions, or nearer.
Used in فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَى to express a bow-based measure of nearness or distance.
- Lane · entry 9075
- Mufradāt · row 1150
Selected Quran examples
Quran 53:9word 2
“(at) a distance”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 53:9قَابَ(at) a distance
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 26 Classical meanings
قَابَ
To dig or make a round, hollow cavity in the ground.
A transitive verbal use, especially with the ground or earth as object.
- Lane · entry 9070
قَابَ
Of a bird, to break its eggs apart.
Used with eggs as the object.
- Lane · entry 9070
قَابَ
Of skin, to become pitted or marked with small hollows.
An intransitive use describing the skin's surface.
- Lane · entry 9070
قَابَ
To approach or draw near; also, in a contrary attested usage, to flee.
The two directions are reported as contrasting lexical uses rather than as one combined action.
- Lane · entry 9070
قَوَّبَ
To make impressions, marks, or traces in the ground by treading or alighting, including indications at watering places.
A causative/intensive Form II use involving footprints, landing, or similar marks.
- Lane · entry 9071
قَوَّبَ
Of mange or scab, to make pits in a camel's skin, leaving the affected places bare of fur.
The attested construction describes the effect of mange or scab on the camel's skin.
- Lane · entry 9071
قُوِّبَ
To become sullied with dust.
A passive Form II expression describing a person or thing becoming dust-covered.
- Lane · entry 9071
قَوَّبَ
To pull something out or up by the root; to eradicate or uproot it.
A transitive Form II use of complete removal from the root.
- Lane · entry 9071
تَقَوَّبَ
To become peeled or excoriated, especially in several or many places.
An intransitive Form V use describing peeling or loss of the outer surface in patches.
- Lane · entry 9072
تَقَوَّبَ
Of a place, to become stripped in parts of its trees and herbage.
The attested use concerns vegetation being removed from portions of a place.
- Lane · entry 9072
تَقَوَّبَ
To be pulled out or up by the root; to be eradicated or uprooted.
An intransitive or reflexive Form V use describing removal from the root.
- Lane · entry 9072
اِنْقَابَ
Of the ground, to become hollowed out in a round form.
An intransitive Form VII use describing a rounded hollow being formed.
- Lane · entry 9073
اِنْقَابَ
Of an egg, to break open and disclose the young bird; figuratively, to reveal or manifest an affair, case, or state.
The figurative use is explicitly modeled on an egg opening to disclose what is within.
- Lane · entry 9073
اِقْتَابَ
To choose, select, elect, or prefer someone or something.
A transitive Form VIII use.
- Lane · entry 9074
قُوبٌ
A young bird, especially in relation to its emergence from an egg.
A nominal use for the bird in the egg-and-hatching vocabulary of the root.
- Lane · entry 9076
قُوبٌ
An egg, including an egg from which the young bird has emerged.
The word is reported with both the young-bird and egg senses.
- Lane · entry 9076
قُوبٌ
In the proverb concerning an egg freed from its young bird, the state of separation from one's companion.
A conventional figurative application comparing a person's separation from a companion to the separation of a young bird and an egg.
- Lane · entry 9076
أُمُّ قُوبٍ
Calamity or misfortune.
A fixed expression.
- Lane · entry 9076
قُوَبٌ
Hollows or pits.
The attested examples concern hollows in the ground and pits in the head or skin.
- Lane · entry 9077
قُوَبٌ
Eggshells.
A nominal plural use distinct from the egg or young-bird senses.
- Lane · entry 9077
قُوَبَاءُ
Ringworm, tetter, or a spreading cutaneous eruption in which scabs peel from the skin and hair comes off.
A name for the disease or eruption, with the stated peeling and hair-loss features.
- Lane · entry 9082
قُوَبَةٌ
A man who remains constantly in his abode and does not leave it.
An epithet applied to a person characterized by staying at home.
- Lane · entry 9081
قُوبِيٌّ
Fond of, or addicted to, eating young birds.
A descriptive adjective derived in connection with قُوبٌ, young birds.
- Lane · entry 9083
قَائِبَةٌ
An empty egg.
The expression قَائِبَةُ قُوبٍ denotes an egg emptied of the young bird within it.
- Lane · entry 9085
أَرْضٌ مَقُوبَةٌ
Land on which rain has fallen and from which, as a consequence, trees formerly growing in some places have been carried away.
A descriptive participial expression for land partly stripped of its former vegetation.
- Lane · entry 9086
مُتَقَوِّبٌ
Peeled or excoriated; of a person, one whose scabs have peeled away leaving marks and hairless patches; of a serpent, one that has cast off its skin.
The participle is applied to peeled surfaces, persons with the described skin condition, and a serpent after shedding its skin.
- Lane · entry 9087
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic group is tagged as a noun despite the surface spelling قَابَ; it is normalized here to the nominal citation قَابٌ, while the separate verbal قَابَ uses remain in the Classical meanings.
The Form VII Lane entry is headed اسقابت in the supplied transcription, while its body and cross-references support انقابت; the public citation follows the latter.
The verbal entry قَابَ records approaching and fleeing as contrary reported uses; these are retained together with that qualification rather than treated as one undifferentiated meaning.