cabaret

[kab-uh-rey, kab-uh-ret]

noun

1. a restaurant providing food, drink, music, a dance floor, and often a floor show.

2. a caf é that serves food and drink and offers entertainment often of an improvisatory, satirical, and topical nature.

   Synonyms: club, supper club, nightclub

3. a floor show consisting of such entertainment.

   The cover charge includes dinner and a cabaret.

4. a form of theatrical entertainment, consisting mainly of political satire in the form of skits, songs, and improvisations.

   an actress whose credits include cabaret, TV, and dinner theater.

5. a decoratively painted porcelain coffee or tea service with tray, produced especially in the 18th century.

6. Archaic.,  a shop selling wines and liquors.

verb (used without object)

cabareted, cabareting 

1. to attend or frequent cabarets.

cabaret

/ ˈkæbəˌreɪ /

noun

1. a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant

2. a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabaret¹

1625–35; < French: tap-room, Middle French dial. ( Picard or Walloon) < Middle Dutch, denasalized variant of cambret, cameret < Picard camberete small room (cognate with French chambrette; chamber, -ette )

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabaret¹

C17: from Norman French: tavern, probably from Late Latin camera an arched roof, _chamber

Example Sentences

It will feature a cabaret with nightly entertainment, indoor and outdoor bars and private restaurants.

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Her arrival made it clear: The cabaret was back!

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In New York, Jaglom trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, acting in and directing off-Broadway theater and cabaret before moving to Hollywood in the late 1960s.

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The Nazi regime’s Reichskulturkammer, or chamber of culture, tightly censored cabaret and comedy.

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The result is part crooner, part cabaret — with clear nods to Frank Sinatra and Old Hollywood romances.

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Related Words

• disco