ENGLISH
REFERENCE

cabbage

n. · v.
US //ˈkæbədʒ// UK //kˈæbɪdʒ// cab·bage
  1. 1 the vegetable (n.)
    A2 Elementary Cooking

    a large, round vegetable with many green, white, or purple leaves that you can eat raw or cooked.

    a cultivated plant of the species Brassica oleracea, characterized by a dense head of edible leaves.

    Example

    She chopped up a fresh cabbage to make a crunchy salad for dinner.

    Example

    The traditional recipe calls for red cabbage braised slowly with vinegar and apples to balance the richness of the roast pork.
    • leafy green
  2. 2 money (n.)
    C1 Advanced Slang American English

    a slang word for paper money.

    a slang term for paper currency, likely derived from the green color of US banknotes.

    Example

    He made a lot of cabbage working overtime at the construction site.

    Example

    In the local underworld, having enough cabbage was the only way to ensure loyalty among the lower-level associates.
  3. 3 to relax or do nothing (v.)
    C1 Advanced Informal British English

    to spend time doing nothing or resting in a lazy way.

    to spend time in a state of physical or mental inactivity; to idle.

    Example

    After a long week at work, I just want to cabbage in front of the TV.

    Example

    Rather than exploring the city, the exhausted tourists spent the entire afternoon cabbaging in the hotel lounge.
  4. 4 to steal (v.)
    C2 Proficiency Archaic Informal

    to steal small things, especially pieces of cloth or materials.

    to pilfer or purloin, historically used in reference to tailors keeping scraps of cloth for themselves.

    Example

    The old stories tell of tailors who would cabbage enough silk to make their own clothes.

    Example

    The apprentice was warned that any attempt to cabbage the expensive velvet would result in immediate dismissal from the workshop.
Etymology 1

Etymology tree Old French caboce Anglo-Norman cabochebor. Middle English caboche English cabbage From Middle English caboche, cabage (“cabbage”; “a certain fish”), a borrowing from Anglo-Norman caboche (“head”), a northern variant of caboce, of uncertain origin. Some authorities derive it from Latin caput (“head”), others from ca- (said to be an expressive prefix) + boce (“hump; bump”) (whence English boss).

Etymology 2

Unclear. Perhaps from Dutch kabbassen, from Old French cabasser (“put into a basket”), from cabas. Alternatively, perhaps from an earlier word carbage (“shred”), a potential variant of *garbage (“wheat straw”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Last updated June 20, 2026