tabbies

Noun

tabby (countable and uncountable, plural 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.
   • "Ay, ay; she wore a flowered silk tabby sacque, on band days," said Toole, who had an eye and a corner in his memory for female costume, "a fine showy—I remember."1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “Showing how Poor Mrs. Macnamara Was Troubled and Haunted Too, and Opening a Budget of Gossip”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley...
2. (uncountable) A concrete 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. (countable) A brindled cat.
   • A wise tabby, a blinking sphinx, watched from her warm sill. Pity to disturb them. Mohammed cut a piece out of his mantle not to wake her.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 5]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
4. (Australia, slang) A woman, irrespective of age, but often used for a young, attractive woman.
   • ‘The kids go for a drive in a borrowed car, park on another street between the corner lamps, and then there’s ructions because some little tabby gets up the stick.’1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 76
5. (archaic, countable) An old maid or gossip.

   Synonyms:

   old woman

See all 10 meanings of tabby