What is "cabal"

Cabal \Ca*bal"\ (k[.a]*b[a^]l"), n. [F. cabale cabal, cabala, LL. cabala cabala, fr. Heb. qabb[=a]l[=e]h reception, tradition, mysterious doctrine, fr. q[=a]bal to take or receive, in Pi["e]l qibbel to adopt (a doctrine).]

1. Tradition; occult doctrine. See Cabala. [Obs.]
   --Hakewill.

2. A secret. [Obs.] ``The measuring of the temple, a cabal found out but lately.''
   --B. Jonson.

3. A number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in church or state by intrigue; a secret association composed of a few designing persons; a junto.

   Note: It so happend, by a whimsical coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the initial letters of whose names made up the word cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.
   --Macaulay.

4. The secret artifices or machinations of a few persons united in a close design; intrigue.

   By cursed cabals of women.
   --Dryden.

   Syn: Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy.

   Usage: Cabal, Combination, Faction. An association for some purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A combination is an organized union of individuals for mutual support, in urging their demands or resisting the claims of others, and may be good or bad according to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of employers to effect or to prevent a change in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who seek by cunning practices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. ``Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly to the lower orders of society. Restless, jealous, ambitious, and little minds are ever forming cabals. Factions belong especially to free governments, and are raised by busy and turbulent spirits for selfish purposes''.
   --Crabb.

Cabal \Ca*bal"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Caballed (-b[a^]ld"); p. pr. & vb. n. Caballing]. [Cf. F. cabaler.] To unite in a small party to promote private views and interests by intrigue; to intrigue; to plot.

Caballing still against it with the great.
--Dryden.

1520s, "mystical interpretation of the Old Testament," later "society, small group meeting privately" (1660s), from French cabal, in both senses, from Medieval Latin cabbala (see cabbala). Popularized in English 1673 as an acronym for five intriguing ministers of Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale), which gave the word its sinister connotations.

n. 1 A usually secret exclusive organization of individuals gathered for a political purpose. 2 A secret plot. 3 An identifiable group within the tradition of http://en.wikipedi

1. org/wiki/Discordianism. v

2. To engage in the activities of a #Noun

1. n: a clique (often secret) that seeks power usually through intrigue [syn: faction, junto, camarilla]

2. a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot) [syn: conspiracy]

3. v : engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together; "They conspired to overthrow the government" [syn: conspire, complot, conjure, machinate]

4. [also: caballing, caballed]

A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, state, or other community, often by intrigue, usually unbeknown to persons outside their group. Cabals are sometimes secret societies composed of a few designing persons, and at other times are manifestations of emergent behavior in society or governance on the part of a community of persons who have well established public affiliation or kinship. The term can also be used to refer to the designs of such persons or to the practical consequences of their emergent behavior, and also holds a general meaning of intrigue and conspiracy. The use of this term usually carries strong connotations of shadowy corners, back rooms and insidious influence. The term is frequently used in conspiracy theories; some Masonic conspiracy theories describe Freemasonry as an internationalist secret cabal.

is a arcade video game originally developed by TAD Corporation and published in Japan by Taito Corporation and in North America and Europe by Fabtek. In this game, the player controls a commando, viewed from behind, trying to destroy various enemy military bases. The game was innovative for the era, and a modest success in sales.

Cabal is a 1988 horror novel by the British author Clive Barker. It was originally published in the United States as part of a collection comprising a novel and several short stories from Barker's sixth and final volume of the Books of Blood.

The book was adapted into the film Nightbreed in 1990, written and directed by Barker himself, starring Craig Sheffer and David Cronenberg.

A cabal is a group of people united in some design, often secretively.

Cabal, Kabal, or the Cabal may also refer to:

• The Cabal Ministry, a government under King Charles II of England
• Cabal (set theory), an American group of mathematicians concentrated in southern California
• Conway Cabal, an effort to remove George Washington as commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War
• Kabal, a desert fortification found in northern Kuwait used to house American military and coalition forces
• Kabal, Tehsil, a town in Pakistan

The Cabal was, or perhaps is, a grouping of set theorists in Southern California, particularly at UCLA and Caltech, but also at UC Irvine. Organization and procedures range from informal to nonexistent, so it is difficult to say whether it still exists or exactly who has been a member, but it has included such notable figures as Donald A. Martin, Yiannis N. Moschovakis, John R. Steel, and Alexander S. Kechris. Others who have published in the proceedings of the Cabal seminar include Robert M. Solovay, W. Hugh Woodin, Matthew Foreman, and Steve Jackson.

The work of the group is characterized by free use of large cardinal axioms, and research into the descriptive set theoretic behavior of sets of reals if such assumptions hold.

Some of the philosophical views of the Cabal seminar were described in and .

The Haskell Cabal is the Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries; it aids in the packaging and distribution of software packages. It is contained in the Haskell Platform.

Cabal is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and the third entry in the Aurelio Zen series.

When, one dark night in November, Prince Ludovico Ruspanti fell a hundred and fifty feet to his death in the chapel at St. Peter's, Rome, there were a number of questions to be answered. The answer the Vatican housekeepers want is rubber-stamped suicide. Zen, whose bad luck it is to be on call that night, is keen to oblige and return to his girlfriend's bed. Unfortunately for him, things turn out to be not that simple and he finds that getting the real answers is by no means easy, as witness after witness is mysteriously silenced - by violent death. To crack the secret of the Vatican, Zen must penetrate the most secret place of all: the fabled Cabal. How much of a threat does it represent? How far could it reach? Does it even exist?

The Cabal is a comic book secret society of supervillains and antiheroes in Marvel Comics' main shared universe. The group was formed in the " Dark Reign" storyline very shortly after the Secret Invasion event.