First recorded in 1250–1300; (noun) Middle English, from Old French tab(o)ur; see tambour; (verb) Middle English tabouren, derivative of the noun or from Old French taborer, derivative of tab(o)ur
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Cross-dressed women, star-crossed lovers and someone pestering a pipe and tabor is most of what I want out of a midsummer night at the theater.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2017
Nobody says the words authentic, historical, or—despite the lute and tabor processions led by jesters—medieval.
From Slate ● Feb. 1, 2013
For it is the peculiar genius of Mr. White to make an act out of an anecdote, to spin an innocent jest with pipe, tabor, scenery, and bring down his curtain on a guffaw.
From Time Magazine Archive
As a practical politician he doubtless realizes that an "open shop " campaign has little chance of success in a rising tabor market.
From Time Magazine Archive
A young fellow somersaulted backward from the cart to the sound of drumming, while a fat man wearing a red jerkin and bells on his trousers danced a jig, and another played the tabor.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Directed by Cynthia Lawrence, Douglas Moore’s stagework recounts the true story of the scandalous 19th-century romance between Elizabeth “Baby Doe” McCourt and rising Denver political star and mine owner Horace Tabor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
“As of 1855, construction of overland telegraph systems had become standardized,” Mr. Tabor writes, but “no such standard existed for submarine telegraph lines, especially those running through salt water.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Ruth Heeley, a teaching assistant at Ysgol Bryn Tabor in Coedpoeth, Wrexham, said food education was important for children to learn how to make good choices.
From BBC ● May 19, 2025
Tepper also previously fired Matt Rhule and Ron Rivera at midseason, and Chris Tabor, Steve Wilks and Perry Fewell have worked for him as interim head coaches.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
The next token was to be found in the plain of Tabor, but this Tabor can have no connection with the well-known mountain of that name in the plain of Esdraelon.
From The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Samuel by Blaikie, William Garden
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
