cabbages

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cabbage.

   The farmer harvested rows of cabbages before the first frost.

   Heavy rain damaged many of the cabbages in the field.

   Note

   The plural counts whole plants or heads: rows of cabbages, three cabbages at the market. When the leaves are food, English usually keeps the singular, so we eat cabbage, not cabbages. The slang sense 'money' is uncountable too and never takes this form. The same spelling also serves as the verb form, so the sentence decides which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of cabbage.

   Rumor has it the club treasurer cabbages a little cash from every charity raffle.

   The foreman cabbages spare lumber from every job site and sells it to his cousin on weekends.

   Note

   Several distinct verbs share this one spelling, and the construction tells them apart. With no object it is the gardener's verb for a plant forming a head (the lettuce cabbages); in slang it can also mean idling. With an object it means pilfering: she cabbages a little from the till. Unlike the plural noun, it always follows a singular subject such as he, she or it.

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