Dictionary

cabbagehead en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From cabbage + head.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A head of cabbage.
   • They are at first white, but later become yellowish; they are very small and difficult to detect, being usually deposited singly or in groups of two or three upon the outer surface of a spreading leaf, and not upon the cabbagehead. 1953, Station Bulletin - Volumes 34-54:
   • The artichoke is elegant, but hardly sympathetic. Asparagus is nice enough, but rather apathetic. A cabbagehead is admirable, but after all is said It' s nothing really very much except a cabbagehead. 1931, Katharine Kinard Doughtie, Groceries & Notions:
   • He had pulled them up by the roots and the cabbageheads were still on their stalks, which were like handles. 1944, Elmer Reid Smith, Marion L. Edman, Georgia E. Miller, Invitation to Reading - Book 3, page 11:
2. (countable, uncountable) A style of smokestack on a wood-burning locomotive that has a roughly spherical top on a straight narrow stack.
   • His first experience in engine service was on the old "cabbagehead" wood-burning engines, ... 1955, Locomotive Engineers Journal - Volume 89, page 624:
   • ...and at 6:30 the train steams out over Sawgrass marsh with Emanuel Beasley, its engineer, sweating over the firebox of a cabbagehead locomotive. 1954, The Saturday Evening Post - Volume 226, Issue 6, page 102:
   • Up till 1915 its engines carried tall balloon stacks rather than the round cabbagehead chimneys of a later era. 1947, Trains - Volume 7, page 54:
3. (countable, uncountable) A common type of jellyfish, Stomolophus meleagris
   • The most common jellyfish in Georgia waters is the cabbagehead. 2003, David Bryant, George Davidson, Georgia's Amazing Coast:
   • The “cabbagehead” (Stomolophus meleagris), like other jellyfish, drifts on the ocean currents that ceaselessly cross the globe. 1984, Lawrence S. Earley, Wildlife in North Carolina, page 22:
   • The most conspicuous medusa in our coastal waters is the cabbagehead, Stomolophus meleagris (Figure 11.4). 1989, Nick Fotheringham, Susan B. Rothschild, Beachcomber's Guide to Gulf Coast Marine Life, page 95:
4. (countable, uncountable) A roughly spherical aggregation of a mineral.
   • The iron content of these growth habits varies as follows: plates and rosettes honeycomb cabbagehead. 1980, Developments in Sedimentology - Volume 29, page 313:
   • The rarest growth habit of authigenic chlorite is the cabbagehead. At low magnifications they appear to be small, equidimensional grains usually attached to sand-sized grains (Fig. 15E). 1982, Shaly Sand, page I-155:
   • Actinium-228 was the only other naturally occurring radionuclide detected in cabbagehead samples. 1985, Ruth Patrick, John M. Palms, Radiological and Ecological Studies in the Vicinity of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station., page 183:
5. (countable, uncountable) The larval form (caterpillar) of Crocidolomia pavonana, which is a pest that eats cabbages.
   • The maximum mortality of the cabbagehead caterpillar (C pavonana) and the cluster caterpillar (5. litura) approached 7096, while that of the diamondback moth (P. xylostella) was only 66.6796. 1999, Thai Journal of Agricultural Science, page 520:
   • According to our studies, B. thuringiensis is effective against DBM and cabbagehead caterpillar and does not have any detrimental effects on the parasitoid (Sastrosiswojo et al, 1977). 1996, J. K. Waage, Biological Control Introductions, page 19:
   • However, the cabbagehead caterpillar (Crocidolomia binotalis Zeller) which is the secondary pest of cabbage, may become a serious problem, particularly during the dry season. 1992, N. S. Talekar, Diamondback moth and other crucifer pests, page 81:

Forms

Relateds

cabbage worm · cabbage white · cabbage moth

cabbagehead en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

From cabbage + -head.

Meanings

1. A stupid person; an idiot.
   • A cabbagism is dialogue that is specifically added to a scene to explain a term or device to the cabbageheads in the audience. 1998, Phil Farrand, The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes:
   • I can't stand to see them mistreated. I suppose it seems silly to you. You and your friends must all think me a cabbagehead. 1992, Robin Leigh, The Hawk and the Heather, page 179:
   • So Marston cooperates, enters the stinking lavatory stall to change clothes, opens the diplomatic bags himself while the slow-witted cabbagehead remains outside. 1983, Robert L. Duncan, The Queen's Messenger, page 282:

Forms