cabaret

[ kab-uh-rey kab-uh-ret ]

noun

1. a restaurant providing food, drink, music, a dance floor, and often a floor show.
2. a caf é that serves food and drink and offers entertainment often of an improvisatory, satirical, and topical nature.

   Synonyms: club, supper club, nightclub

3. a floor show consisting of such entertainment:

   The cover charge includes dinner and a cabaret.

4. a form of theatrical entertainment, consisting mainly of political satire in the form of skits, songs, and improvisations:

   an actress whose credits include cabaret, TV, and dinner theater.

5. a decoratively painted porcelain coffee or tea service with tray, produced especially in the 18th century.
6. Archaic. a shop selling wines and liquors.

verb (used without object)

, cab·a·reted [kab-, uh, -, reyd], cab·a·ret·ing [kab-, uh, -, rey, -ing].

1. to attend or frequent cabarets.

cabaret

/ ˈkæbəˌreɪ /

noun

1. a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant
2. a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabaret¹

1625–35; < French: tap-room, Middle French dial. ( Picard or Walloon) < Middle Dutch, denasalized variant of cambret, cameret < Picard camberete small room (cognate with French chambrette; chamber, -ette )

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabaret¹

C17: from Norman French: tavern, probably from Late Latin camera an arched roof, chamber

Example Sentences

He tweets frequently about “Drag Me to Joanne’s,” a weekly drag dinner, and livestreams the restaurant’s events, which include drag bingo and cabaret nights.

From Slate

Willan and Adams first met doing cabaret in 2015.

From BBC

Fostering her daughter's talent by bringing her on as a background singer in her band and performing together in cabaret clubs across New York City, Whitney learned valuable lessons on performing directly from the source and never failed to give her mom partial credit for her success, although the relationship between mother and daughter was often described as "complicated."

From Salon

There’s also a hefty helping of American nonsense concerning French culture; just as we take it as a given that coyotes, cockroaches and Cher will survive the apocalypse, it seems that Zabel and the writers envision that the French will always find a way to cabaret, even if civilization has fallen.

From Salon

What follows are scenes out of a movie melodrama — helpless poverty, horrific exploitation, routine brushes with violence and near-death escapes — performed under the guise of a karaoke cabaret.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• disco