CABBAGE, n. A genus of plants, called in botany Brassica, of several species; some of which are cultivated for food. The leaves are large and fleshy, the pods long and slender, and the seeds globular. The kinds most cultivated are the common cabbage, called with us the drum-head, the Savoy, the broccoli, the cauliflower, the sugar-loaf, and the cole-wort.

The popular name of a genus of plants, called in botany Brassica, of several species; some of which are cultivated for food. The leaves are large and fleshy, the pods long and slender, and the seeds globular. The kinds most cultivated are the common cabbage, called with us the drum-head, the Savoy, the broccoli, the cauliflower, the sugar-loaf, and the cole-wort. Dog's cabbage, a name given to the Thelygonum cynocrambe. – Fam. of Plants. Sea-cabbage. The sea-beach kale, or sea-colewort, a genus of plants, called Crambe. They are herbaceous esculents, with perennial roots, producing large leaves like those of cabbage, spreading on the ground. – Encyc.

To form a head in growing; as, a plant cabbages. – Johnson.

To purloin or embezzle, as pieces of cloth, after cutting out a garment. – Arbuthnot.

1. An esculent vegetable of many varieties, derived from the wild Brassica oleracea of Europe. The common cabbage has a compact head of leaves. The cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc., are sometimes classed as cabbages.
2. To form a head like that the cabbage; as, to make lettuce cabbage.
   
   
   Johnson.
3. To purloin or embezzle, as the pieces of cloth remaining after cutting out a garment; to pilfer.
   
   

   Your tailor . . . cabbages whole yards of cloth.
   Arbuthnot.

4. Cloth or clippings cabbaged or purloined by one who cuts out garments.
5. The terminal bud of certain palm trees, used, like, cabbage, for food. See Cabbage tree, below.
6. The cabbage palmetto. See below.
   
   

   Cabbage aphis (Zoöl.), a green plant-louse (Aphis brassicæ) which lives upon the leaves of the cabbage. -- Cabbage beetle (Zoöl.), a small, striped flea- beetle (Phyllotreta vittata) which lives, in the larval state, on the roots, and when adult, on the leaves, of cabbage and other cruciferous plants. -- Cabbage butterfly (Zoöl.), a white butterfly (Pieris rapæ of both Europe and America, and the allied P. oleracea, a native American species) which, in the larval state, devours the leaves of the cabbage and the turnip. See Cabbage worm, below. -- Cabbage fly (Zoöl.), a small two-winged fly (Anthomyia brassicæ), which feeds, in the larval or maggot state, on the roots of the cabbage, often doing much damage to the crop. -- Cabbage head, the compact head formed by the leaves of a cabbage; -- contemptuously or humorously, and colloquially, a very stupid and silly person; a numskull. -- Cabbage palmetto, a species of palm tree (Sabal Palmetto) found along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. -- Cabbage rose (Bot.), a species of rose (Rosa centifolia) having large and heavy blossoms. -- Cabbage tree, Cabbage palm, a name given to palms having a terminal bud called a cabbage, as the Sabal Palmetto of the United States, and the Euterpe oleracea and Oreodoxa oleracea of the West Indies. -- Cabbage worm (Zoöl.), the larva of several species of moths and butterflies, which attacks cabbages. The most common is usually the larva of a white butterfly. See Cabbage butterfly, above. The cabbage cutworms, which eat off the stalks of young plants during the night, are the larvæ of several species of moths, of the genus Agrotis. See Cutworm. -- Sea cabbage.(Bot.) (a) Sea kale (b). The original Plant (Brassica oleracea), from which the cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc., have been derived by cultivation. -- Thousand-headed cabbage. See Brussels sprouts.