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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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“What Martin Kao and his cabal did was wrong.”

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 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

The danger here goes beyond the podcast cabal and a misguided think-tank leader.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025

They would turn their backs on her, her mother, the policemen, her brother, and go off with Robbie Turner to indulge some adult cabal.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

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 was the Keeper of George III.'s conscience, until he caballed against Mr. Pitt, and was unceremoniously turned out by him.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 45, July, 1861 by Various

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

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

He caballed with the very men to whom he had hitherto been most vehemently opposed for the sole object of expelling Lord Shelburne from office.

From The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 by Charles Duke Yonge

Europe was fluttered, secret service money was poured out like water, diplomatists caballed and scribbled despatches, all for very little. 

From Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles by Andrew Lang

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

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

From Newsweek ● Apr. 8, 2013

"Why, then," said my father, "they may have the pleasure of caballing and cutting up one another, even in the same room."

From The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Volume 1 by Fanny Burney

While Bolingbroke and his confederates were caballing and counselling, and paltering and drinking, the Whig statesmen were maturing their plans, and when the moment came for action it found them ready to act.

From A History of the Four Georges, Volume I by Justin McCarthy

That their perpetual caballing with her factious subjects, against her authority, had forced her into such measures, as otherwise she would not have engaged in.

From The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10 Historical Writings by Jonathan Swift

For my own share, I have preserved peace in my house till your arrival: and I warn you, that if you have the passion of intriguing and caballing, you have applied to the wrong hand.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 16 by Thomas Carlyle




Vocabulary lists containing cabal


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