Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also cabbidge) to steal, to pilfer, orig. used of tailors stealing offcuts.

1685		‘A Scholar’ Maggots 34: From how many a narrow Hem / Has my Botcher cabbag'd them?
1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 27: Your tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages whole yards of cloth.
1740		Garrick Lethe Act I: This sneaking gentleman is my tailor [...] he has cabbaged one yard in six from his customers.
1750		Hist. of Jack Horner 4: Jack frights a Taylor for cabbaging Cloth out of his Coat.
1767		‘Andrew Barton’ Disappointment I v: Nae mare me hoose sal be a resaptacle for thieves, ye preckloose cabbaging sins o’ hoors.
1771		Foote Maid of Bath Married I iv: One may cut and cabbage, and cut again, without pinching our customers, or clipping them into short coats.
1789		‘A Parody’ Parsley’s Lyric Repository 20: ’T shall go hard, If out of your suit I don’t cabbage a yard.
1798		‘Medley’ in Hilaria 39: Snip seiz’d an artless lass, sir, / And cabbag’d her virginity, the best piece of her a— , sir.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 61: A Taylor who cabbag’d, as taylors will do, / Not an inch from an ell, but a yard out of two.
1815		‘A Tailor’s Goose Can Never Fly’ Sailor’s Vocal Repository 30: Tailors cabbage all your cloth.
1822		C. Dibdin Yngr Larks of Logic, Tom and Jerry I i: Yes, lawyers cabbage as well as tailors.
1830		Owl (NY) 25 Sept. n.p.: [H]e has cabbaged enough from his master to buy a pair of boots.
1831		Satirist (London) 20 Nov. 261/2: So these were made state snips for life, By Royal will and pleasure / [...] / To cabbage they were never known, Which most of all surprises.
1837		G.T. Strong Diary in Nevins & Thomas (1952) I 57: The students were all glorious and more than one potato and apple were cabbaged from the barrels in front of the groceries.
1840		Sunbury American (Northumberland Co., PA) 19 Dec. 1/1: During the past year there have been cabbaged by the tailors of this metropolis nine thousand four hundred and seven yards of cloth, eighteen pecks of buttons [etc.].
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 3/2: Although certain parties hint, that I am only the ninth part of a man, in this Chamber I have cabbaged a whole vote.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 413: It’s not my fault if that old screw Lady Bareacres cabbidged three hundred yards of lace.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 June 3/2: [She] was charged by a butcher of Pitt-street [...] with having invaded his pickle-tub and cabbaged a quantity of beef.
1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: [T]he effect of such incessant practice is an unquestionable proficiency in the art of measuring and cabbaging.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 245: Dick, cabbage a bit of cloth.
c.1864		‘Timothy Brown the Tailor’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 39: Oh, you’ve cabbaged my heart, and sewed me up !
1867		S. London Press 14 Dec. 15/5: The remnant, as were just over five yards [...] didn’t leave not ’ardly a bit over, though [...] I always suspects Mrs Pollin of ’avin’ cabbaged [...] bein’ a tailor’s daughter.
1872		‘Useless S. Grant’ in Farmer of Chappaqua Songster 64: None of them of late / Can equal what you’ve ‘cabbaged’ from us freely.
1880		Columbus Jrnl (NE) 1 Dec. 1/8: Thee may cut it, but as the tailors sometimes cabbage cloth [...] I shall stay and watch.
1882		N&Q Ser. 6 VI 210: But he said, If I cabbage that ring tonight, I shall be all the richer tomorrow.
1885		R. Burton Arabian Nights 321: [note] The tailor in the East [...] is made to cut out the cloth in presence of its owner, to prevent ‘cabbaging’.
1888		St Paul Dly Globe 28 July 10/6: The above-mentioned comrades [...] did on or about July 19 [...] eneter the chicken coop of a comrade and did [...] steal, purloin, rob, crib, cabbage, abstract, or otherwise carry away, eleven chickens.
1892		Meridional (Abbeveille, LA) 16 July 2/5: Heiner is evidently a scurby fellow, he [...] cabbaged about $100 entrusted to him by subscribers.
1899		Dly Press (Richmond, VA) 21 Nov. 4/2: he elaned over the counter and adroitly cabbaged a cigar.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 25/3: The scoop on this occasion was engineered by two men, one of whom worked at the Blue Moon and cabbaged a shirtful of specimens each shift, which were carefully smuggled below by his brother.
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 295: cabbage, v. To take, steal.
1917		Mt Vernon Signal (KY) 2 Nov. 4/3: It shall be unlawful to pick up [...] steal, seize, [...] pilfer, purloin [...] crib, cabbage [...] another man’s umbrella.
1935		E.W. Calder ‘Black 13’ in Spicy Adventure Stories Aug. 🌐 It was the red-haired wren who’d cabbaged my thirty-five blue chips.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
2005		D.F. Wallace ‘Up, Simba’ in Consider the Lobster 207: [T]he rest of the press corps has to stand in the back of the hall and try to help the slightly mad Economist guy cabbage breadsticks when nobody’s looking.

2. to destroy, to defeat.

1808		G. Colman Yngr ‘Heigho! says Thimble’ in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 621: My dearest duck’s defunct in bed; / Death has cabbag’d her.
1831		‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 3/5: Flinty monster! thou hast cabbaged my very existence!

3. to grab; to arrest.

1754		Derby Mercury 6 Sept. 3: Tho’ small was his Wit, he so acted his Part / That (I know not how ’twas) he cabbag’d her Heart.
1809		A.B. Lindsley Yankee Notions 37: Tarnation seize me, but I’ll cabbage his bottle.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 193: Was it an honest trick of you to cabbage my young friend [...] as if you had been slavers kidnapping the Bungoes.
1851		R. Hicks Lady Killer 37: Just send a dray around for all the good things I shall cabbage.
1867		Cambria Freeman (Edensburg, PA) 17 Oct. 3/3: Another individual who was ‘on the wing,’ induced by over indulgence [...] was cabbaged and cribbed for getting obstreperous.
1906		E. Dyson In Roaring Fifties 188: She got a quart and I cabbaged half for my tea-party.
1934		R.L. Bellem ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 Under ordinary circumstances I’d have cabbaged onto that three grand.
1943		Burnley Exp. 5 May 2/2: Americanisms [...] ‘cabbaged on to her’ (got hold of her arm).

4. to plagiarize.

1815		Morn. Post (London) 11 Aug. 3/4: Whatever may be found in the above beautiful quotation, [...] there is not more than half of it cabbaged.
1870		Derbys. Times 25 June 4/6: It will be found that the entire article has been ‘cabbaged’ from an essay [...] by Mr Alfred Smith [...] Such an impudent piece of literary piracy [etc.].
1874		Edinburgh Eve. News 16 Jan. 2/6: The boy had some arithmetic to do, and on showing his ‘sum’ to the master, the latter accused him of having ‘cabbaged’ from a book.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 2/1: It may also be mentioned that the Illustrated London News’ people are not above what is known in artistic and literary circles as ‘cabbaging’.
1882		Manchester Courier 28 Jan. 10/6: Martin’s address was in his own language, and not ‘cabbaged’ from books .