Part of Speech: noun
Pronunciation: [kê-'bæl or kê-'bahl]
Definition: A secret group involved in plots and intrigues, usually aimed at the overthrow of a power structure.
Usage: Here is another unjustly rare word with many commonplace applications: "Hmm, your sister asked the same thing; you two don't have a cabal going, do you?" Or: "The older deacons formed a cabal to replace the young minister" (where "older" and "young" are interchangeable).
Suggested Usage: The noun may be used as a regular verb in the sense of forming a cabal or conspiring: "Caballing officers caused the overthrow of many South American governments." There are no synonyms. "Conspiracy" refers to the activity, not the group carrying it out.
Etymology: From Medieval Latin cabala, borrowed from Hebrew qabbala "received doctrine" (<>
cabal \kuh-BAHL; kuh-BAL\
noun: 1. A secret, conspiratorial association of plotters or intriguers whose purpose is usually to bring about an overturn especially in public affairs. 2. The schemes or plots of such an association.
intransitive verb: 1. To form a cabal; to conspire; to intrigue; to plot.
If you constantly disagreed with Winters, he wrote you out of his cabal, his conspiracy against the poetry establishment.-- Richard Elman, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs
My father always had been a collector. There were the stamps, National Geographics, scrapbooks filled with his favorite political cartoons, and booklets justifying his belief that the world was under the control of a global cabal of elites unified by such organizations as the Trilateral Commission, the Council on
Foreign Relations, and the Freemasons.-- Frederick Kempe, Father/Land
But the new world of toys is by no means simply the product of a profit-mad cabal of toy pushers discovering new ways of exploiting the child market.-- Gary Cross, Kids' Stuff
The Anti-Federalists were not simply concerned that Congress was too small relatively--too small to be truly representative of the great diversity of the nation. Congress was also too small absolutely--too small to be immune from cabal and intrigue.-- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights
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