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Cabbage, Not the Vegetable
Does the "filching" meaning of cabbage bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you're in for a surprise. This use has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments. The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun cabbage, which meant "pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites." Both of those ethically questionable cabbages probably derived from cabas, the Middle French word for "cheating or theft." The cabbage found in coleslaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English caboche, which meant "head."
Synonyms
Noun (1)
Examples of cabbage in a Sentence
Melissa Clark, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Mar. 2024
Color eggs naturally Color eggs with natural dyes, like onion skins, red cabbage, and more.
—Rita Nader Heikenfeld, The Enquirer, 22 Mar. 2024
Stuffed with chicken, avocado ranch sauce, cheddar cheese and pico de gallo, the taco also includes a bit of crunchy inside with shredded purple cabbage and iceberg lettuce.
—Antonia Debianchi, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2024
Hit restaurants across the country have taken notice, adding cabbage dishes up and down their menus.
—Tori Latham, Robb Report, 11 Mar. 2024
Beer is sometimes dyed green to celebrate the day and corned beef and cabbage are associated with the holiday.
—Dina Kaur, The Arizona Republic, 1 Mar. 2024
This is the time of year when corned beef and cabbage shine.
—Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 15 Mar. 2024
Irish music, corned beef & cabbage, fish & chips, Guinness and Smithwicks.
—Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 13 Mar. 2024
The Santa Monica Mountains provided a striking backdrop to tables heaped with cabbages and carrots and vibrant purple radishes at the Topanga Farmers Market, a weekly event that just made its first appearance under new direction and since closing down in 2018.
—Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cabbage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near cabbage
Cite this Entry
“Cabbage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabbage. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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