tabby
1a cat with a striped or brindled coat.
a domestic cat, especially a female one.
a spinster.
a spiteful female gossip or tattler.
a watered silk fabric, or any other watered material, as moreen.
striped or brindled.
made of or resembling tabby.
to give a wavy or watered appearance to, as silk.
Origin of tabby
1Words Nearby tabby
Other definitions for tabby (2 of 2)
(in the southeastern United States) a building material composed of ground oyster shells, lime, and sand, mixed with salt water.
Origin of tabby
2Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use tabby in a sentence
An image might be labeled “tabby cat” or “tiger cat,” for example, to “train” an artificial neural network to correctly distinguish a tabby from a tiger.
Self-Taught AI Shows Similarities to How the Brain Works | Anil Ananthaswamy | August 11, 2022 | Quanta MagazineGeneticists recently discovered a gene in domesticated cats that triggers changes in fetal cat development, resulting in those trademark feline tabby stripes.
But in the book, Father Carmine just has one unhealthy tabby cat.
Some old tabby of a chaperon saw me there and came and told my grandmother.
Quin | Alice Hegan RicePoor tabby became so lame that she was at length obliged to leave us.
Emily Bront | A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson
All the cats kept at this establishment, and there are several, are of the red tabby colour, and therefore most likely all males.
Our Cats and All About Them | Harrison WeirThe colour, however, that I now refer to is often called the silver tabby, for want of a better name.
Our Cats and All About Them | Harrison WeirNext kin to it is the very light-gray tabby, with almost the same hue, if not quite so light-gray markings.
Our Cats and All About Them | Harrison Weir
British Dictionary definitions for tabby (1 of 2)
/ (ˈtæbɪ) /
a fabric with a watered pattern, esp silk or taffeta
Origin of tabby
1British Dictionary definitions for tabby (2 of 2)
/ (ˈtæbɪ) /
(esp of cats) brindled with dark stripes or wavy markings on a lighter background
having a wavy or striped pattern, particularly in colours of grey and brown
a tabby cat
any female domestic cat
British informal a gossiping old woman
Australian slang any girl or woman
Origin of tabby
2Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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