tabby

1 of 3

noun (1)

tab·​by ˈta-bē How to pronounce tabby (audio)
plural tabbies
1
[tabby entry 2]
a
: a domestic cat with a striped and mottled coat
b
: a domestic cat
especially : a female cat
2
a
: a plain-woven fabric
b
archaic : a plain silk taffeta especially with moiré finish

Illustration of tabby

Illustration of tabby
  • tabby 1a

tabby

2 of 3

adjective

1
: striped and mottled with darker color : brindled
a tabby cat
2
: of, relating to, or made of tabby
a tabby vest

tabby

3 of 3

noun (2)

: a cement made of lime, sand or gravel, and oyster shells and used chiefly along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the 17th and 18th centuries

Examples of tabby in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But the real scene-stealer is the adorable orange tabby cat named Ulysses that Llewyn carries around New York City (even if the filming experience wore down the Coens). Janey Tracey, EW.com, 29 Feb. 2024 Some of the applicants reported grievously sick or injured cats: A tabby with a huge tumor-like growth on its side. Jonathan Franzen, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023 The orange tabby starred in the first video streamed from deep space, a successful NASA experiment that marked a milestone for advancing humans’ ability to send communications from beyond Earth’s orbit. Justine McDaniel, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2023 In the first film, Goose was primarily played by an orange tabby named Reggie, but since The Marvels relocated filming to the United Kingdom, Marvel producers reached out to cat trainer Jo Vaughan to find and train a replacement. Devan Coggan, EW.com, 29 Sep. 2023 Squibb’s robust orange tabby, Billy Bob, wandered by and rubbed against her shin. Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024 Lots of people were interested in adopting the rotund tabby, but one woman beat everyone to it. Cathy Free, Washington Post, 12 Jan. 2024 There were only about 45 minutes left until midnight when the singer-songwriter joined the two hosts, immediately bewildering them as the camera caught a bunch of tabbies prancing all over the bar. Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 1 Jan. 2024 The Biden family's three-year-old tabby cat is enjoying her second holiday season at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Virginia Chamlee, Peoplemag, 20 Dec. 2023
Adjective
With gentle winds from the south at 5 to 10 mph, so much for the month coming in like a lion — more like a tabby cat. David Streit, Washington Post, 29 Feb. 2024 It’s written on a cardboard box that often contains the store’s lounging tabby cat, an internet star who has a varied wardrobe, but often wears a striped T-shirt. Cathy Free, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2023 The daughter of a piano teacher and musician, Jo taught art to immigrant children in a public school on New York’s Lower East Side, lived with her tabby cat, Arthur, and dreamed of making a living as a professional artist. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 3 Aug. 2023 The couple had been together for about 11 years and moved to Seattle several years ago with their tabby cat, Otis, Bailey said. oregonlive, 23 June 2023 Skabenga, a tabby cat lovingly known as a feline with —at least — nine lives, calls one of South Africa’s most iconic properties, The Oyster Box, home. Sandra MacGregor, Forbes, 2 Apr. 2023 The pair are both calicos, although Dusty has more of a tabby look. The Republic, The Arizona Republic, 10 Mar. 2023 Today's study also charts the rise of the single mutation that gives us today's rather common tabby coat pattern, and in doing so sheds additional light on cat domestication overall. Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 19 June 2017 The duo worked with landscape designer Sam Comer to devise a surface of tabby concrete tiles which blend in with the home’s stucco and also optimize drainage in the rainy months. Hadley Mendelsohn, House Beautiful, 2 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tabby.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

French tabis, from Middle French atabis, from Medieval Latin attabi, from Arabic ʽattābī, from Al-ʽAttābīya, quarter in Baghdad

Noun (2)

Gullah tabi, ultimately from Spanish tapia adobe wall

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1638, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Adjective

1640, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Noun (2)

1775, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tabby was in 1638

Dictionary Entries Near tabby

Cite this Entry

“Tabby.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tabby. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

tabby

noun
tab·​by
ˈtab-ē
plural tabbies
1
: a domestic cat with a striped and spotted coat
2
: a female cat
Etymology

Noun

from French tabis "a silk fabric with a lustrous wavy finish," from Latin attabi (same meaning), from Arabic 'attābī (same meaning), from Al-'Attābīya, name of a part of Baghdad where the cloth was made

Word Origin
A silk cloth with a striped or wavy pattern was once made in a section of the ancient city of Baghdad in what is now Iraq. The Arabic name for the cloth was 'attābī, from Al-'Attābīya, the name of the part of the city where it was made. Through Latin, the French borrowed this word for the cloth, calling it tabis. This word in turn became tabby in English. People saw a resemblance between the striped or wavy pattern of the silk and cats that had striped or spotted markings on their fur. Thus these cats came to be called tabby cats after the cloth.
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