cabaret

American  

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

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.

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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

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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; chamber, -ette )

Example Sentences

At one point, he forged a cabaret card, a mandated ID for musicians and entertainers between 1940 and 1967 who worked in establishments serving alcohol, which required individuals to be 18 years and older.

From Los Angeles Times

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

Later, she performed jazz sets across the city from cabaret stages to the historic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.

From Los Angeles Times

Googoosh wasn’t even potty-trained when she began performing as a toddler at cabarets as orchestrated by her showman father.

From Los Angeles Times

The retelling of the first lady’s life recasts her as a petulant former cabaret performer who would rather be on stage than in the White House.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• disco