a cat with a grey or tawny coat mottled with black
<noun.animal>
female cat
<noun.animal> [ adj ]
having a grey or brown streak or a pattern or a patchy coloring; used especially of the patterned fur of cats
<adj.all>
Tabby \Tab"by\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tabbied}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Tabbying}.] To water; to cause to look wavy, by the process of calendering; to calender; as, to tabby silk, mohair, ribbon, etc.
Tabby \Tab"by\, n.; pl. {Tabbies}. [F. tabis (cf. It. tab[`i], Sp. & Pg. tab['i], LL. attabi), fr. Ar. 'att[=a]b[=i], properly the name of a quarter of Bagdad where it was made, the quarter being named from the prince Attab, great grandson of Omeyya. Cf. {Tobine}.] 1. A kind of waved silk, usually called {watered silk}, manufactured like taffeta, but thicker and stronger. The watering is given to it by calendering.
2. A mixture of lime with shells, gravel, or stones, in equal proportions, with an equal proportion of water. When dry, this becomes as hard as rock. --Weale.
3. A brindled cat; hence, popularly, any cat.
4. An old maid or gossip. [Colloq.] --Byron.
Tabby \Tab"by\, a. 1. Having a wavy or watered appearance; as, a tabby waistcoat. --Pepys.
2. Brindled; diversified in color; as, a tabby cat.
{Tabby moth} (Zo["o]l.), the grease moth. See under {Grease}.
Her latest victory came Sunday when a blue-spotted tabby named Amy was given the 9-Lives Morris Award after being judged the best household cat at Denver's Campaign Tails spring cat show.
Perhaps the timorous tabby gradually moved south because it didn't like the Texas bobcat, which is about the same size yet outnumbers the ocelot more than 2,000 to 1 here.
Atheneum Director Patrick McCaughey said he was happy to show the photos because an art museum "mustn't just lie back and sit like a tabby cat."
Later that night, Taborsak found a dead orange tabby in the street.