CABAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Cabal

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/kəbˈɑl/ Listen

noun

Cabal n.

1.

Tradition; occult doctrine. See Cabala. (Obs.)

2.

A secret. (Obs.) "The measuring of the temple, a cabal found out but lately."

3.

A number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in church or state by intrigue; a secret association composed of a few designing persons; a junto. Note: It so happend, by a whimsical coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the initial letters of whose names made up the word cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.

4.

The secret artifices or machinations of a few persons united in a close design; intrigue. "By cursed cabals of women."

Synonyms: Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy. Cabal, Combination, Faction. An association for some purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A combination is an organized union of individuals for mutual support, in urging their demands or resisting the claims of others, and may be good or bad according to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of employers to effect or to prevent a change in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who seek by cunning practices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. "Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly to the lower orders of society. Restless, jealous, ambitious, and little minds are ever forming cabals. Factions belong especially to free governments, and are raised by busy and turbulent spirits for selfish purposes".

verb

Cabal v. i. (past & past part. caballed; pres. part. caballing) To unite in a small party to promote private views and interests by intrigue; to intrigue; to plot. "Caballing still against it with the great."

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Etymology of 'Cabal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cabal" Quotes from Famous Books

... his success against Sir George Booth in the August following, and jealousies soon arose between his party in the army and the Rump. The Parliament would have dismissed him, and the chief officers in the cabal with him, but Lambert with the army in October hindered their free meeting, and took the management of the government into the hands of a council of officers, whom they called the Committee of Safety. Towards the latter end of the year, the tide began ...

— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... to which of the three seniors would obtain the promotion, and discussion ran high upon the probabilities. Some were of opinion that it would be Huntley; some, Gerald Yorke; a very few, Tom Channing. Countenanced by Gaunt and Huntley, as he had been throughout, Tom bore on his way, amid much cabal; but for the circumstance of the senior boy espousing (though not very markedly) his cause, his place would have been unbearable. Hamish attended to his customary duties in Guild Street, and sat up at night as usual in his ...

— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... time, Mr. Adams observed: "With these concerns, political, personal, and electioneering intrigues are mingling themselves, with increasing heat and violence. This government is assuming daily, more and more, a character of cabal and preparation, not for the next presidential election, but for the one after, that is working and counterworking, with many of the worst features of elective monarchies. Jackson has made for himself a multitude of friends, and still ...

— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... mutinous Cabal, nor Coffee-houses, where he goes religiously to consult the Welfare of ...

— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn

... desperate attacks ever made, under the forms of the Constitution, on any English administration; and they selected the minister who had the deepest share in the worst acts of the Court, the soul of the Cabal, the counsellor who had shut up the Exchequer and urged on the Dutch war. The whole political drama was of the same cast. No unity of plan, no decent propriety of character and costume, could be found in that wild and monstrous harlequinade. The whole was made up of ...

— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

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