ENGLISH
REFERENCE

cabbage

n. countable
A2 Elementary US //ˈkæbədʒ// UK //kˈæbɪdʒ// cab·bage Slang Vulgar

n. a large, round green vegetable with thick leaves. You eat it raw in salads or cook it with other dishes.

n. a biennial plant cultivated as an annual vegetable for its compact head of thick, fleshy leaves. Commonly consumed raw or cooked.


SIMPLE

I chopped the cabbage for the soup.

CONTEXTUAL

She added shredded cabbage to the stir-fry for extra crunch and vitamins.

COMPLEX

The fermented cabbage, known as sauerkraut, has been a staple in European cuisine for centuries due to its long shelf life.

Synonyms
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”).

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