tabasheer 
forms, prob. adapted from Hind.] A white 
opaque or translucent variety of opal which 
breaks into irregular pieces like dry starch, 
found in the joints of the bamboo in the East 
and Brazil, and believed to be caused by dis- 
ease or injury to the plant. It possesses the power 
of absorbing its own weight of water, when it becomes 
entirely transparent. It is probably the " oculus mundi ' 
of the gem-writers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eigh- 
teenth centuries. In the East Indies tabasheer, prepared 
by calcining and pulverizing, is largely used as a medi- 
cine by both Hindus and Mohammedans; it is esteemed 
cooling, tonic, aphrodisiac, and pectoral. 
tabbinet, tabinet (tab'i-net), . [< tabby* - 
-n-et, after satinet, etc.; or < tabin + -et.] A 
fabric of silk and wool, like a poplin, with a wa- 
tered surface : chiefly used for upholstery. 
tabby 1 (tab'i), n, and a. [Formerly also taby, 
tabis (and tabin) ; < F. tabis = Sp. tabi = Pg. 
tabi = It. tabl (ML. attabi), < Ar. 'attabi, a rich 
watered silk, < 'Attabiya, a quarter in Bagdad 
where it was first manufactured, < 'Attab, a 
prince, great-grandson of Omeyya.] I. n. ; pi. 
tabbies (-iz). 1. A watered material. Specifically 
(a) A general term for watered silks, moire, etc. 
Let others looke for pearle and gold, 
Tissues or tabbies manifold. 
Uerrick, The New Yeeres Gift. 
(6) A worsted material, as a watered moreen. 
2. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a 
silken stuff not necessarily watered. Mrs. Ar- 
mitage, Old Court Customs. 
The manufactures they export are chiefly burdets of silk 
and cotton, either striped or plain, and also plain silks like 
tabbies. Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 126. 
3. In entom., a pyralid moth of the genus Aglos- 
sa : a British collectors' name. A. pinguinalis 
is the common tabby, also called grease-moth ; 
A. ciiprealis is the small tabby. 
II. a. 1. Made of or resembling the fabric 
tabby ; diversified in appearance or color like 
tabby. 
This day left off half-skirts, and put on a wastecoate and 
my false tabu wastecoate with gold lace. 
Pepys, Diary, Oct. 13, 1661. 
If she in tabby waves encircled be, 
Think Amphytrite rises from the sea. 
W. King, Art of Love, viii. 
The Prince [of Wales] himself, in a new sky-blue watered 
tabby coat. Walpole, Letters, II. 115. 
2. Performed as in making the plain material 
from which tabby is produced: said of weaving. 
In Fig. 8 apiece of plain woven cloth is represented. . . . 
Fig. 38 represents the same thing as it would be drawn by 
the weaver, and it is generally called tabby or plain weav- 
ing. A. Barlow, Weaving, p. 89. 
tabby 1 (tab'i), v. t. ; pret. and pp. tabbied, ppr. 
tabbying. [< tabby*, n.] To cause to look like 
tabby, or watered silk; give a wavy appearance 
to, as stuffs : as, to tabby silk, mohair, ribbon, 
etc. This is done by the use of a calender with- 
out water. 
The camlet marble is that which, retaining the same color 
after polishing, appears tabbied. Marble- Worker, 35. 
tabby 2 (tab'i), n.; pi. tabbies (-iz). [Abbr. of 
tabby-cat.] 1. A tabby-cat, (a) A brindled cat, 
gray, streaked or otherwise marked with black or yellow. 
The wild original of the domestic cat is always of such 
coloration. The black, white, uniform mouse-gray (Mal- 
tese), yellow, and spotted (tortoise-shell) cats are all arti- 
ficial varieties. 
In chocolate, mahogany, red, or yellow long-haired tab- 
bies the markings and colours to be the same as in the 
short-haired cats. Harrison Weir, Our Cats, p. 145. 
(b) A female cat : distinguished from tom-cat. 
"An 1 how hae ye been? an' how are ye?" 
Was aye the o'erword when she [the cat] came ; 
To mony a queer auld tabby 
Sin' syne hae we said the same. 
7. Martin, My bairn, we aince were bairnies (tr. from 
[Heine). 
2. An old maid; a spinster; hence, any spiteful 
female gossip or tattler. [Colloq.] 
Observe that man. He never talks to men ; he never 
talks to girls ; but, when he can get into a circle of old 
tabbies, he is just in his element. 
Rogers, quoted in Trevelyan's Macaulay, I. 241. 
tabby 3 (tab'i), n. [Origin obscure; perhaps of 
Morocco (Ar.) origin.] A mixture of lime with 
shells, gravel, or stones in equal proportions, 
with an equal proportion of water, forming a 
mass which when dry becomes as hard as rock. 
This is used in Morocco as a substitute for 
bricks or stone in building. Weale. 
tabby-cat (tab'i-kaf), n. [So called as having 
fur thought to be marked like tabby; < tabby* 
+ eat 1 .] Same as tabby 2 , 1. 
tabet (tab), n. [< L. tabes, a wasting away : see 
tabes.] Same as tabes. 
But how soon doth a tabe and consumption take it down ! 
Ret. T. Adams, Works, I. 434. 
Tabebuia (tab-e-bu'ia), n. [NL. (Gomez, 
1803), from Braz. name.] A genus of gamo- 
6146 
petalous plants, of the order Bigu<iii(cex, tribe 
Tecomeit, and section Digitifdlise-. It is character- 
ized by loosely racemose or cymose flowers with a tulmlar 
and at length variously ruptured calyx, an elongated and 
greatly enlarged corolla-tube, four perfect stamens, and a 
sessile ovary ripening into a somewhat cylindrical ecostate 
capsule with numerous flat seeds, each with a large hy- 
aline wing. There are about 80 species, natives of tropi- 
cal America from Brazil to the West Indies and Mexico. 
They are erect shrubs or trees, smooth or hairy, often dry- 
ing black. They bear usually large flowers and alternate 
or scattered leaves, which are generally composed of five 
to seven digitate leaflets, sometimes reduced to three or 
to one. Several species are used medicinally, as T. im- 
petiginosa, which yields a bitter mucilaginous bark and 
abounds in tannin. Many are valuable trees, yielding an 
almost indestructible timber; several are known in tropi- 
cal America as roble that is, oat and are used for house- 
and ship-building, or for making bows, as T. toxophrrra, 
the pao-d'arco of Brazil. The names whitewood and box- 
wood are given to T. Leitcoxylon in the West Indies, and 
the former name also to T. pentaphylla; both are timber- 
trees with whitish bark and white or pink flowers. T. 
serrattfoKa, a small tree with yellow flowers, is known as 
pony in Trinidad. All the above species were formerly 
classed under Tecfrma, but are removed to Tabebuia on 
account of their digitate, not pinnate, leaflets. A very 
different species, T. vliginnoa, a shrub with simple entire 
leaves, is known as Brazilian cork-tree, from the use of its 
soft wood. 
labefaction (tab-e-fak'shon), n. [< LL. as if 
*tabef(tctio(>i-),<. tabefacere, pp. tabefactus, melt: 
se&tabefy.] A wasting away or consumption of 
the body by disease ; emaciation; tabescence; 
tabes. 
tabefy (tab'e-fi), v. ; pret. and pp. tabefied, ppr. 
tabejying. [< LL. tabefacere, melt, dissolve, < 
L. iabere, melt, waste away (see tabes, tabid), 
+ facere, make, do (see -fy).] I. trans. To 
cause to consume or waste away; emaciate. 
[Bare.] 
Meat eaten in greater quantity than is convenient tabe- 
fe the body. Harvey, Consumptions. 
II. intrants. To emaciate; lose flesh; waste 
away gradually. [Bare.] 
tabella (ta-bel'a), .; pi. tabellx (-e). [NL., < 
L. tabella, a little board, a tablet, letter, ballot, 
legal paper, dim. of tabula, a table, tablet: see 
table.] In phar., a medicated lozenge or hard 
electuary, generally in the form of a disk, dif- 
fering from a troche by having sugar mixed 
with the powdered drug and mucilage. 
tabellary (tab'e-la-ri), a. [< L. tabellarhts, of 
or pertaining to tablets, < tabella, a tablet : see 
tabella.] Same as tabular, 2 Tabellary method. 
See method. 
tabellion (ta-bel'yon), . [< F. tabellion = 
Sp. tabelion = Pg. tabelli&o, tabalUSo = It. tabel- 
lione, < LL. tabellio(n-), one who draws up legal 
papers, < L. tabella, a tablet, legal paper: see 
tabella.] In the Eoman empire, and in France 
till the revolution, an official scribe or scrivener 
having some of the functions of a notary. The 
tabellions were originally of higher rank than notaries, but 
afterward in France became subordinate to them. The 
title was abolished in 1761, except in certain seigniories. 
tabert, . and v. An old spelling of tabor*. 
taberdt, n. An old spelling of tabard. 
tabern (tab'ern), n. [< L. taberna, a booth, a 
stall : see tavern.] A cellar. Halliwell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
taberna (ta-ber'na), n. ; pi. tabernx (-ne). [L. : 
see tabern, tarern.] In Som. antia., a tent, 
booth, or stall; a rude shelter ; specifically, in 
later times, a shop or stall either for trade or 
for work, or a tavern. 
The baths of Pompeii . . . were a double set, and were 
surrounded with taberna, or shops. Eneyc. Brit., III. 435. 
tabernacle (tab'er-na-kl), . [< ME. tabernacle, 
< OF. (and F.) tabernacle = Pr. tabernacle = 
Sp. taberndatlo = Pg. tabernaculo = It. taberna- 
colo, < L. tabernaculnm, a tent, LL. (Vulgate) 
the Jewish tabernacle, dim. of taberna, a hut, 
shed, booth; from the same root as tabula, a 
table, tablet: see tavern, table.] 1. A tent; 
a pavilion; a booth; a slightly constructed 
habitation or shelter, either fixed or movable ; 
hence, a habitation in general, especially one 
regarded as temporary ; a place of sojourn ; a 
transient abode. 
The tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. 
Prov. xiv. 11. 
Let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and 
one for Moses, and one for Klias. Mat. xvii. 4. 
The body . . is but the tabernacle of the mind. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 
2. In Biblical phraseology, the human frame as 
the temporary abode of the soul, or of man as 
a spiritual immortal being. 
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, 
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance ; knowing 
that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our 
Lord Jesns Christ hath shewed me. 2 Pet. 1. 13, 14. 
tabernacle 
3. In Jewish hist., a tent constructed to serve 
as the portable sanctuary of the nation before 
its final settlement in Palestine. This "tabernacle 
of the congregation " is fully described in Ex. xxv.-xxvii. 
and xxxvi.-xxxviii. It comprised, besides the tent, an 
inclosure or yard, in which were the altar of burnt-offer- 
ings and the laver. The tabernacle proper was a tent 
divided into two chambers by a veil the inner chamber, 
or holy of holies, containing the ark of the covenant and 
the mercy-seat, and the outer chamber the altar of incense, 
the table of showbread, and the golden candlestick. The 
tabernacle was of a rectangular figure 45 feet by 15, and 
15 feet in height. The court or yard was 150 feet in length 
by 75 feet, and surrounded by screens 7i feet high. The 
people pitched round the tabernacle by tribes in u fixed 
order during their wanderings, and the pillar of cloud and 
of fire, denoting Jehovah's presence, rested upon it or was 
lifted from it according as they were to remain stationary 
or were to go forward. After the arrival in the promised 
land it was set up in various places, especially at Shiloh, 
hut gradually lost its exclusive character as the center of 
national worship before the building of Solomon's temple, 
in which its contents were eventually placed. 
And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and 
put the covering of the tent above upon it. Ex. xl. 19. 
And they brought up the ark [to the temple built by 
Solomon], and the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of 
meeting, E. V.], and all the holy vessels that were in the 
tabernacle, these did the priests and the Levites bring up. 
2 Chron. v. 6. 
Hence 4. A place or house of worship; espe- 
cially, in modern use, an edifice for public wor- 
ship designed for a large audience : often now 
the distinctive name assumed for such an edi- 
fice. 
The shed in Moorflelds which Whitefleld used as a 
temporary chapel was called "The Tabernacle"', and, in 
the scornful dialect of certain Church-of-England men, 
Methodist and such-like places of worship have, since 
then, been known as tabernacles. 
F. Hall, False Philol., p. 24, note. 
5. A receptacle for the reserved eucharist; es- 
pecially, a constructional receptacle for this 
purpose, containing the pyx. The tabernacle, as 
now commonly seen in Roman Catholic churches, is a re- 
cess with a door, placed over and behind the high altar or 
one of the side altars, usually having over it a cross or 
crucifix with a design in relief, the whole surmounted by 
a canopy. In earlier times a movable ark, or usually a 
suspended dove (columba) or a tower, held the eucharist 
or the vessel containing it. In England the general medi- 
eval custom was to place the sacrament in an ambry on 
one side of the sanctuary or in the sacristry. The taber- 
nacle is a later development of the ark or ambry as a per- 
manent construction over the high altar and surmounted 
by a canopy or ciborium, often in the spire-like shape de- 
veloped from the older tower ; hence the name tabernacle 
is often given especially to this canopy or to canopies of 
similar appearance. 
6. In medieval arch., a canopied stall, niche, or 
pinnacle ; a cabinet or shrine ornamented with 
Tabernacle of Orcafna, in Or San Michele, Florence. 
openwork tracery, etc.; an arched canopy over 
a tomb, an altar, etc. 
Babeuries and pinacles, 
Imageries, and tabernacles, 
I saw. Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1190. 
7. Naut., an elevated socket for a river-boat's 
mast, or a projecting post to which a mast may 
be hinged when fitted for lowering to pass be- 
neath bridges. [Eng.] Feast of Tabernacles, 
among the Jews, an annual festival celebrated in the 
autumn (on the fifteenth day of Tisri) in commemora- 
tion of the dwelling of their people in tents during the 
journey in the wilderness, and as a feast of thanksgiving 
for the harvest and vintage. Among the ancient Jews it 
