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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

She attended Brandeis University, where she majored in political science and performed in musicals and cabaret.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 8, 2026

The “Firework” hitmaker and Trudeau confirmed their relationship in October, when they stepped out hand in hand at a cabaret show in Paris, where they had been celebrating Perry’s birthday.

From MarketWatch Jun. 12, 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

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 Dec. 2, 2025

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

“Sifts through scores of queer gazettes, posters, newspapers and oral histories that documented public spaces around the country, from the leather bars of San Francisco to the drag cabarets of Kansas City.”

From New York Times Jan. 11, 2024

On the other hand, there’s Bep’s engagement, the Pentecost reception, the flowers, Mr. Kugler’s birthday, cakes and stories about cabarets, movies and concerts.

From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

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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