alt-tab

present singular third person alt-tabs · participle present alt-tabbing · participle past alt-tabbed · past alt-tabbed

1. computingTo switch windows in Microsoft Windows.

plural Alt-Tabs

1. countableuncountablecomputingA keyboard shortcut in Windows that switches between application-level windows, sorted by most recently active.
   1. countableinformaluncountablecomputingAn equivalent keyboard shortcut that switches between windows or applications, such as Windows-Tab, or Command-Tab on macOS.

present singular third person Alt-Tabs · participle present Alt-Tabbing · participle past Alt-Tabbed · past Alt-Tabbed

1. intransitivecomputingTo switch between windows or applications by pressing Alt-Tab (or equivalent).

   ‘Oh, good,’ said Professor Wright brightly, Alt-tabbing to her calendar and skimming the appointment.

   2014, B. T. O’Brien, chapter 25, in The Kong Meng Legacy, page 170

   2 more examples

   If I Alt-Tabbed through all other open programs, eventually returning to the screen from which the cursor disappeared, it would reappear and everything seemed fine.

   1996, PC Magazine, volume 15, numbers 13–16, page 87

   At times when I was deep in the middle of a calculation, that sudden shudder of my chair and his shrill voice pulled me out of my semi-trance state as I alt-tabbed to hide any confidential data and turned my chair around to entertain his novel question.

   2024, Prakhar Gupta, Mudit Yadav, chapter 14, in Don't Shut Up: How to Talk So the World Listens