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cabaret

American  
[kab-uh-rey, kab-uh-ret] / ˌkæb əˈreɪ, ˈkæb əˌrɛt /

noun

  • cabarets
    plural
  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 British  
/ 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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of cabaret

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; see chamber, -ette)

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Their music was a blend of blues rock and hard rock with elements of cabaret.

From BBC Jul. 15, 2026

The Grammy Award-winning rapper made history as the show’s first woman to portray the charismatic cabaret manager Zidler — the character’s full name is Harold Zidler.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 28, 2026

The “Firework” hitmaker and Trudeau confirmed their relationship in October, when they stepped out hand in hand at a cabaret show in Paris.

From MarketWatch Feb. 23, 2026

One of her original creations, the faded cabaret queen Lola Heatherton, armored herself in plastered-on wigs and stage finery, façades obscuring the jittery desperation of a woman hanging on by the quicks of her fingernails.

From Salon Feb. 4, 2026

The closest I got to Kraków nightlife was when I delivered love notes between a man at a cabaret and a woman who lived in the apartment next door to ours.

From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson

In Belle Époque Paris, the cabarets of Montmartre rebelled against industrial modernity and spawned an aggressive avant-garde sensibility.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 17, 2026

Since debuting Lady Bushra four years ago, Amir has travelled the world performing at comedy nights and cabarets - from Los Angeles to Liverpool.

From BBC Apr. 22, 2024

It became the Savoy Ballroom, then Eastside Hall, when the city council, seeking to better serve Seattle’s Black community in 1946, relaxed its “unwritten but rigid policy” forbidding cabarets east of Eighth Avenue.

From Seattle Times Mar. 9, 2023

Rollins cut his teeth in Harlem’s storied Sugar Hill neighborhood, soaking up the action in nearby ballrooms, cabarets, speakeasies and churches, all of which fed his appetite for the sounds and sights of live performance.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 14, 2022

Argentine sightseers crowded the docks to see the world-famous explorers, and showered the crew with invitations to dinners, dances, and cabarets.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Louder than, and about as funny as Jimmy Durante, Jack White is 44, has been hoofing, gagging, minstreling, cabareting since 1911.

From Time Magazine Archive

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