cabal

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Yet they and their cabal are as inconsistent on the other hand.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers: "Espionage is quite precisely it—a cabal of powerful men, working secretly” (Frank Conroy).
  2. noun A secret scheme or plot.
  3. intransitive verb To form a cabal; conspire.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Perhaps soon we might even be referred to as a cabal! —  Progressive Bloggers
  • Yes, my fellow Canadians, that is why Stephen Harper with ONLY a minority government, has been able to easily pursue North American Union, with what Mr. Lou Dobbs has referred to as a cabal at the CFR. —  Infowars
  • Everything else on earth is subordinated to the thing--cabal, reform, propaganda, crusade, movement or what not--in which she is interested. —  'Oh, Well, You Know How Women Are!'
  • Day after day they hesitated, and doubted, and lingered, expecting that other counsels would take place; and were slow to be persuaded, that all which had been done by the cabal was the effect not of humor, but of system. —  The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)
  • So Washington wrote to Gordon as the cabal was coming to an end, and in that spirit he crushed silently and thoroughly the faction that sought to thwart his purpose, and drive him from office by sneers, slights, and intrigues These attacks upon him came at the darkest moment of his military career. —  George Washington, Volume I
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French cabale, from Medieval Latin cabala; see kabbalah.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. = Dutch kabaal = German cabale = Danish kabale = Swedish kabal, a cabal (defs. 3 and 4), from French cabale = Spanish cábala = Portuguese Italian cabala, an intrigue, a cabal, the cabala: see cabala.
  2. from cabal, n.
  3. Also written caball; = French cheval = Provencal cavalh = Catalan caball = Spanish caballo = Portuguese Italian cavallo, a horse, from Latin caballus (later Greek καβάλλης), an inferior horse, a pack-horse, nag; later, in general sense (superseding L. equus), a horse. Hence ult. (from L.) capel, cheval, chival, cavalier, chevalier, cavalry, chivalry, etc.
 

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/kæˈbæl/
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