Tabby definitions

tăb'ē
Having light and dark striped or swirled markings.

A Maine coon with a tabby pattern.

adjective
74
2
Made of or resembling watered silk.
adjective
71
1
A rich watered silk.
noun
68
0
A fabric of plain weave.
noun
65
0
A spinster.
noun
62
1
A prying woman; a gossip.
noun
59
1
Made of, or like, tabby.
adjective
58
1
A mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water used as a building material.
noun
56
2
Having dark stripes over gray or brown; brindled.
adjective
54
1
A silk taffeta with stripes or wavy markings; watered silk.
noun
51
0
A light-colored cat with darker stripes, sometimes of another color.
noun
48
0
Any domestic cat, esp. a female.
noun
45
0
To make wavy markings in (silk, etc.)
verb
42
1
(uncountable) A kind of waved silk, usually called watered silk, manufactured like taffeta, but thicker and stronger. The watering is given to it by calendering.
noun
4
0
Having a wavy or watered appearance; as, a tabby waistcoat.
adjective
4
0
(uncountable) 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.
noun
1
0
Brindled; diversified in color; as, a tabby cat.
adjective
1
0
(countable) A brindled cat.
noun
0
0
(countable, archaic) An old maid or gossip.
noun
0
0
A diminutive of the female given name Tabitha.
pronoun
0
0

Origin of tabby

Mid 17th circa French atabis, from Arabic attabi, ultimately from Arabic al-Attabiya, the name of a section of Baghdad, Iraq, which is associated with the manufacture of a certain type of waved silk; see also taffeta, another type of silk whose name derives from the Persian تافته (tâfta, “woven cloth") and shares a similar etymological origin.