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A cabal is a small group of people who make plans in secret, usually because they want power — especially political power, who will be in charge. The word feels dark: you use it when you think the group is hiding and plotting, not working in the open. You will meet it in news and in books more than in everyday talk; in the street people more often say "a small group" or "they were plotting". Though actually, on the internet some people call almost any group they dislike a cabal, which stretches the word. There is also a less common verb, to cabal, meaning to plot in that secret way.
密謀小集團、政治陰謀小圈圈
組成From French cabale, from Medieval Latin cabbala, from Hebrew kabalá, "reception" (also the name of Jewish mysticism). Doublet of Kabbalah; more distantly of ghibli.
同家族的字
- Kabbalahdoublet: both come from the same Hebrew word for reception / Jewish mysticism
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Cabalname
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A surname.
cabalnoun/kəˈbɑːl/
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derogatoryA putative, secret organization of individuals gathered for a political purpose.
- The cabal is plotting to ruin the world.
- Undaunted and implacable, prudent and active; no opposition of the French princes or nobles could withstand his vengeance, no cabals could escape his penetration.
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A secret plot.
- The cabal to destroy the building was foiled by federal agents.
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An identifiable group within the tradition of Discordianism.
- Some episkoposes have a one-man cabal. Some work together. Some never do explain.
cabalverb/kəˈbɑːl/
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To engage in the activities of a cabal.
- [W]e think it very unbecoming our Prudence, that the Determination ſhould be remitted to the Authors themſelves; when our Adversaries, by Briguing and Caballing, have cauſed so univerſal a Defection from us, that the greater Part of our Society has already deſerted to them, […]
- […] I believed her to have been carried off by some persons belonging to a party of Jacobites who were known to be caballing against the government, though to what extent was not then ascertained.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。