(pl. -ies)
1
- （亦作tabby cat）a grey or brownish cat mottled or streaked with dark stripes斑猫。
- [ORIGIN: late 17th cent. （as tabby cat）: said to be so named from its striped colouring.]
2
- mass noun a fabric with a watered pattern, typically silk波纹织物（尤指波纹绸）。
3
- mass noun a plain weave平纹。
4
- mass noun a type of concrete made of lime, shells, gravel, and stones, which dries very hard（石灰碎石组成的）土质混凝土。
- [ORIGIN: early 19th cent. （originally tabby work）: perhaps a different word, or from a resemblance in colour to that of a tabby cat.]
5
- a small moth with dark wavy markings on the forewings斑蛾。
5.1
- Genus Aglossa (family Pyralidae), often found in barns and warehouses, and genus Epizeuxis (family Noctuidae).缟螟属（螟蛾科）, 经常在谷仓和仓库中发现, 还有云杉夜蛾属（夜蛾科）。
- (of a cat) grey or brownish in colour and streaked with dark stripes（猫）灰（或棕）色带黑条纹的。
词源
late 16th cent. （denoting a kind of silk taffeta, originally striped, later with a watered finish: see sense 2）： from French tabis, based on Arabic al-'Attābiyya, the name of the quarter of Baghdad where tabby was manufactured.