tabby

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A rich watered silk.
2. n. A fabric of plain weave.
3. n. A domestic cat with a striped or brindled coat of a gray or tawny color.
4. n. A domestic cat, especially a female.
5. n. A spinster.
6. n. A prying woman; a gossip.
7. n. South Atlantic U.S. A mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water used as a building material.
8. adj. Having light and dark striped markings: a tabby cat.
9. adj. Made of or resembling watered silk.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A watered material. Specifically— A general term for watered silks, moire, etc.
2. n. A worsted material, as a watered moreen.
3. n. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a silken stuff not necessarily watered.
4. n. In entomology, a pyralid moth of the genus Aglossa: a British collectors' name. A. pinguinalis is the common tabby, also called grease-moth; A. cuprealis is the small tabby.
5. Made of or resembling the fabric tabby; diversified in appearance or color like tabby.
6. Performed as in making the plain material from which tabby is produced: said of weaving.
7. To cause to look like tabby, or watered silk; give a wavy appearance to, as stuffs: as, to tabby silk, mohair, ribbon, etc. This is done by the use of a calender without water.
8. n. A tabby-cat. A brindled cat, gray, streaked or otherwise marked with black or yellow. The wild original of the domestic cat is always of such coloration. The black, white, uniform mouse-gray (Maltese), yellow, and spotted (tortoise-shell) cats are all artificial varieties.
9. n. A female cat: distinguished from tom-cat
10. n. An old maid; a spinster; hence, any spiteful female gossip or tattler.
11. n. A mixture of lime with shells, gravel, or stones in equal proportions, with an equal proportion of water, forming a mass which when dry becomes as hard as rock. This is used in Morocco as a substitute for bricks or stone in building.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. n. countable A brindled cat
4. n. countable, archaic An old maid or gossip.
5. adj. Having a wavy or watered appearance; as, a tabby waistcoat.
6. adj. Brindled; diversified in color; as, a tabby cat.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A kind of waved silk, usually called watered silk, manufactured like taffeta, but thicker and stronger. The watering is given to it by calendering.
2. n. 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.
3. n. A brindled cat; hence, popularly, any cat.
4. n. colloq. An old maid or gossip.
5. adj. Having a wavy or watered appearance.
6. adj. Brindled; diversified in color.
7. v. To water; to cause to look wavy, by the process of calendering; to calender

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a cat with a grey or tawny coat mottled with black
2. n. female cat
3. adj. having a grey or brown streak or a pattern or a patchy coloring; used especially of the patterned fur of cats