Alt-Tab — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A keyboard shortcut in Windows that switches between application-level windows, sorted by most recently active.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

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

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Informal
   • Uncountable

Verb

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

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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.

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

   More examples (1)

   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.