noun pl. tabbies -·bies

1. a silk taffeta with stripes or wavy markings; watered silk
2. a light-colored cat with darker stripes, sometimes of another color
3. any domestic cat, esp. a female
4. Brit., Informal
   1. an old maid
   2. a malicious woman gossip

Etymology: Fr tabis, earlier atabis < ML attabi < Ar al-ʼattābīya < ʿattābī, the quarter of Baghdad where it was manufactured: after a prince ʼAttāb, of the Omayyad dynasty

adjective

1. made of, or like, tabby
2. having dark stripes over gray or brown; brindled

transitive verb tabbied -·bied, tabbying -·by·ing