tabby

¹ American  

[tab-ee] / ˈtæb i /

noun

tabbies plural

1. a cat with a striped or brindled coat.

2. a domestic cat, especially a female one.

3. a spinster.

4. a spiteful female gossip or tattler.

5. plain weave.

6. a watered silk fabric, or any other watered material, as moreen.

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adjective

1. striped or brindled.

2. made of or resembling tabby.

verb (used with object)

tabbied, tabbying

1. to give a wavy or watered appearance to, as silk.

tabby ² American  

[tab-ee] / ˈtæb i /

noun

1. (in the southeastern United States) a building material composed of ground oyster shells, lime, and sand, mixed with salt water.

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tabby ¹ British  

/ ˈtæbɪ /

adjective

1. (esp of cats) brindled with dark stripes or wavy markings on a lighter background

2. having a wavy or striped pattern, particularly in colours of grey and brown

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noun

1. a tabby cat

2. any female domestic cat

3. informal a gossiping old woman

4. slang any girl or woman

tabby ² British  

/ ˈtæbɪ /

noun

1. a fabric with a watered pattern, esp silk or taffeta

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tabbies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tabby¹

First recorded in 1630–40; back formation from French tabis (taken as plural), Middle French (a)tabis “silk cloth,” from Medieval Latin attābi, from Arabic ʿattābī, derivative of (al) ʿAttābīyah, quarter of Baghdad where the silk was first made, literally, “the quarter of (Prince) ʿAttāb”

Origin of tabby²

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75; of uncertain origin; perhaps from Gullah tabi, from a West African language

Explanation

A tabby is a house cat with stripes on its fur, often in browns and grays. There are different breeds of tabby cats. Occasionally one will dangle off a branch under a caption that says, “Hang in there.” Tabby can refer to domesticated cats, but it's also an adjective describing the stripy pattern itself. Tabby cats, with their swirling tabby patches, might also have a marking in the shape of an M on their foreheads. Maine coon cats are one example of a tabby breed. In the 1600's, tabby was a kind of striped silk fabric, and the word comes from the Arabic 'Attabiy, a Baghdad neighborhood where the cloth was traditionally produced.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tabby tabbies

Enter Sleek, the crabby tabby cat, and the Rev. Vicarious Cronch, the biblically recondite goat: interlocutors, speaking beasts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

My cats, Cutie and Socks — one’s a tabby and the other is a tuxedo cat — wake me up by mewing and walking on me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026

Since then, the white and tabby cat, officially introduced on Downing Street's website as the "Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office", has reigned supreme from the country's most photographed doorstep.

From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026

It has been known for decades that it is genetics that gives orange tabby cats their distinctive colouring, but exactly where in the genetic code has evaded scientists till now.

From BBC ● May 15, 2025

We drove past Gran’s neighbor’s junkyard, where some kid was pedaling his bike with a vengeance, and that same fat orange tabby was lounging in the grass.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

I foster cats and I’m actually fostering two sister tabbies right now — Lucy and Ethel — and the CatCafe Lounge has taken probably 12 of the cats I’ve fostered and gotten them adopted.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2024

She contends that cats—from tabbies to tigers—are quintessential products of evolution.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 4, 2023

I have plans to make a music room, a library, and a cat heaven for my three tabbies, but I updated the studio first with plans to rent it out.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2022

There are spotted shorthairs, eyes turned upward in remorse; blue-and-green tabbies with Groucho Marx eyebrows knitted in confusion.

From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2021

Come to tea to-morrow afternoon at half-past five and I will tell you all, as they say in the novelettes; but for heaven's sake don't get talking to those dreadful old tabbies.

From Patricia Brent, Spinster by Jenkins, Herbert George