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Tabby   /tˈæbi/   Listen
noun
Tabby  n.  (pl. tabbies)  
1.
A kind of waved silk, usually called watered silk, manufactured like taffeta, but thicker and stronger. The watering is given to it by calendering.
2.
A mixture of lime with shells, gravel, or stones, in equal proportions, with an equal proportion of water. When dry, this becomes as hard as rock.
3.
A brindled cat; hence, popularly, any cat.
4.
An old maid or gossip. (Colloq.)



verb
Tabby  v. t.  (past & past part. tabbied; pres. part. tabbying)  To water; to cause to look wavy, by the process of calendering; to calender; as, to tabby silk, mohair, ribbon, etc.



adjective
Tabby  adj.  
1.
Having a wavy or watered appearance; as, a tabby waistcoat.
2.
Brindled; diversified in color; as, a tabby cat.
Tabby moth (Zool.), the grease moth. See under Grease.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Tabby" Quotes from Famous Books



... night after I arrived, and has not re- appeared: but I must wait some time longer for him. Thank Miss Barton much for the kit; if it is but a kit: my old woman is a great lover of cats, and hers has just kitted, and a wretched little blind puling tabby lizard of a thing was to be saved from the pail for me: but if Miss Barton's is a kit, I will gladly have it: and my old lady's shall be disposed of—not to the pail. Oh rus, quando te aspiciam? Construe that, Mr. Barton.—I ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald - in two volumes, Vol. 1 • Edward FitzGerald

... all events, I am not going to marry any woman inferior to the type I have created with my pencil—what the public calls the 'Carden Girl.' And now you see that your discovery of this living type comes rather late. In two days I must be legally married if I want my Aunt Tabby's legacy; and to-day for the first time I hear of a girl who, you assure me, compares favorably to my copyrighted type, but who has a mission and an aversion to men. So you see, Mr. Keen, that the matter is ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers

... struck up the act music. The curtains parted, and revealed the brightly polished miniature gymnasium I had seen at Anastasius's cattery; the row of pussies at the back, each on a velvet stand, some white, some tabby, some long-furred, some short-furred, all sitting with their forepaws doubled demurely under their chests, wagging their tails comically, and blinking with feline indifference at the footlights; a cage in a corner in which ...
— Simon the Jester • William J. Locke

... Tabby and Eliza Fortlock, sisters, and single women, had been deriving years of leisure, comfort, and money from the sweat of Edward's brow. The maiden ladies owned about eighteen head of this kind of property, far more ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... like hay, Prime Ministers and such as they Grew like asparagus in May, And Dukes were three a penny: Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats, And Bishops in their shovel hats Were plentiful as tabby cats - If possible, too many. On every side Field-Marshals gleamed, Small beer were Lords-Lieutenants deemed, With Admirals the ocean teemed, All round his wide dominions; And Party Leaders you might meet In twos and threes ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert


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