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Definitions

cabal

[kuh-bal, kuh-bawl] / kəˈbæl, kəˈbɔl /
NOUN
plot
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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The hypocrisy of not paying athletes exasperated jurists all the way to the Supreme Court, and the old cabal crumbled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Conspiracy theories surfaced online that the whale had been deliberately driven into the Baltic Sea and all had been staged by a cabal of scientists, authorities and environmental organisations.

From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026

This is evidently what the investment cabal has done.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 16, 2026

As any student of the Kings will know, the point is not to conjure up some Pizzagate-style conspiracy about a cabal of liberal Hollywood predators.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2025

Once we passed a cabal of figures in black cloaks and tricornes carrying torches and whispering together.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

That Epstein’s crimes were confined to himself and a few enablers, chiefly Ghislaine Maxwell, was intolerable to influencers and politicos determined to attribute all bad things to the dark workings of cabals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

So rather than accepting that the world is a complicated place nobody can control, they're susceptible to the idea that there are secret cabals out to get them.

From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2023

These stories offered agency: Evil cabals could be defeated.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2021

“As soon as they heard that, a lot of cabals here in Hollywood, that’s all they needed to hear. It’s like, ‘OK, she must be destroyed.’

From Washington Times ● Oct. 3, 2019

Men muttered in small cabals or threatened one another by the fireside, cutting each other with their eyes and hissing, vaunting superiority in their familiarity with the Unseen.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

He intrigued in society and politics, was a practised duellist, and though he was not more than seven-or eight-and-twenty at Richelieu's death, had already caballed against him.

From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury

The three last-named persons often held little conspiracies together, and caballed or grumbled against the head of the house.

From The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray

Political leaders grumbled, and military officers caballed, but the popular feeling went out to Washington with a sure and utter confidence.

From George Washington, Volume I by Henry Cabot Lodge

He caballed with persecuted Papists and Puritans alike, and with various desperados.

From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by W. (William) Stebbing

While here, Alketas, Polemon, and Dokimus caballed against him, claiming the supreme command for themselves.

From Plutarch's Lives Volume III. by Aubrey Stewart

Henry Kissinger happened to be visiting London at the time and witnessed the caballing against her.

From Newsweek ● Apr. 8, 2013

By dint of caballing, he succeeded in obtaining an open competition for the work in question; whoever chose, was at liberty to send in his picture, and the best would obtain the preference.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various

What those caballing captains may design, I must prevent, by being first in action.—

From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 07 by Sir Walter Scott

I suppose he was a caballing, bribing, intriguing politician, like others in that country, both black and white.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Some months of caballing with our friends—even our Hielan' friends—in the France, left me with an unwholesome heart that would almost doubt my father in his grave.

From Doom Castle by Neil Munro


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