a cat, so called because the brindlings of the tabby were thought to resemble the waterings of the silk of the name. (French, tabis; Italian, etc., tabi; Persian, retabi, a rich figured silk.)
“Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclined.”
Gay.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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