WORD FOR THE DAY

Your word for today is: cabbage, v.2

cabbage, v.2

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈkabɪdʒ/,  U.S. /ˈkæbɪdʒ/

Forms:  17 cabage,   17– cabbage,   18 cabbish Eng. regional (north.).

Etymology:Probably <  cabbage n.3 (see discussion at that entry).
In quot. 1703, the Spanish original uses hurtar, the usual Spanish word for ‘to steal’.

1.  trans. and intr. Of a tailor or dressmaker: to appropriate (offcuts of cloth) as a perk when cutting out clothes. Now rare.

1703  P. Motteux tr.  Cervantes Don Quixote III. ii. xlv. 438 He could not but imagine that..I had a mind to Cabbage some of his Cloath [Sp. él..debióse de imaginar..que..yo le quería hurtar alguna parte del paño].

1793  W. Roberts Looker-on (1794) III. 388 Ben Bodkin, who had cabbaged most notoriously in the making of Sam Spruce's new coat.

1830 Blackwood's Mag. 27 117 Our Tailor says, ‘I like not the charge of plagiarism.’ Nevertheless, he cabbages.

1863 Chambers's Jrnl. 11 July 23/1 Her cut was clumsy..costly silks and laces were extensively cabbaged.

1908  C. G. Harper Half-hours with Highwaymen I. 343 For tailors to 'cabbage' the cloth entrusted to them has always been expected.

 2.  trans. Chiefly slang. To crib, copy, plagiarize. Cf. cab v.2 Now rare.

1773 Coll. Scarce, Curious & Valuable Pieces 319 (note) This account of the fish called the Soldier-Crab, is cabbaged from Brookesius, ch. 72. of his art of Angling.

1837  T. P. Thompson Let. 5 Apr. in Lett. Representative 2nd Ser. 39 A speech, which..had been what schoolboys call ‘cabbaged’, from some of the forms of oration..published by way of caricature.

1882 Tullidge's Q. Mag. Apr. 690/1 In the interval..appeared a long letter..which the Athenaeum charged him with having cabbaged at least the idea of from Miss Bacon.

1914 Internat. Railway Jrnl. Sept. 10/1, I was proud then, but not, however, now, of its lurid phrases—most of them 'cabbaged'—with which it abounded.

1927  H. L. Mencken in Chicago Tribune 6 Mar. vii. 1/3 The plaintiff is honestly convinced that his property has been cabbaged. It is always hard for us to grasp the fact that our ideas may have occurred also to other men.

 3.  trans. and intr. colloq. gen To pilfer, purloin; to acquire (property) inappropriately.

1793  M. Pilkington Rosina II. xii. 134, I tells him he has robbed the dead, for he has cabbaged it [sc. a garden] out of one corner of the church-yard.

1795 Parl. Reg. XLII. 446 A new office was to be cabbaged out of the Duke of Portland's, and an obvious diminution of his credit and authority was to be proclaimed.

1836  G. Penny Trad. of Perth 86 One of them cabbaged a bottle of wine from the waiters.

1862  H. Marryat One Year in Sweden II. 387 Steelyards..sent by Gustaf Wasa as checks upon country dealers, who cabbaged, giving short weight.

1946 Life 5 Aug. 45/2, I have cabbaged all my copy paper free at the Sun office since 1906.

1956  H. L. Mencken Minority Rep. 141 The quacks got enormous power out of the process, and in all probability cabbaged most of their victims' property.

1995  W. Carroll Two Wheels to Panama 131/1, I helped tie the bike to a stanchion then cabbaged a..doughnut and bottle of warm cola.

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