cab|bage

cab|bage¹ «KAB ihj», noun, verb, -baged, -bag|ing.

–n.

1. a) a plant whose leaves are closely folded into a round head that grows from a short stem. Cabbage belongs to the mustard family. The most common kind is called white cabbage; red and savoy cabbage are two other kinds. b) its head, eaten either cooked or raw as a vegetable.

2. any one of a number of related plants, such as the Portuguese cabbage and the Chinese cabbage.

3. the large, tender terminal bud of various palm trees, sometimes eaten as a vegetable.

4. Slang. paper money; bank notes.

–v.i.

to form a head like that of a cabbage in growing.

╂[< Middle French caboche head < Picard, variant of Old French caboce]

cab|bage² «KAB ihj», noun, verb, -baged, -bag|ing.

–n.

1. pieces of cloth stolen by tailors in the process of cutting out clothes.

2. British Slang. a translation, usually literal, of a classical or other work in a foreign language, used dishonestly by schoolboys in preparing their lessons or recitations; crib.

–v.t.

1. Informal. to appropriate surreptitiously; pilfer: »

Someone has cabbaged my pen.

2. British Slang. to crib: »

... a speech, which…had been what schoolboys call "cabbaged' from some of the forms of oration (P. Thompson).

–v.i.

to pilfer: »

Steelyards…who cabbaged, giving short weight (H. Marryat).

╂[origin unknown]