Log in or Sign up
caboche love

caboche

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A head. See cabbage.
  • noun A name of the miller's-thumb or bullhead.
  • noun A tadpole.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word caboche.

Examples

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • hernesheir commented on the word caboche

    The fish called a bullhead, or a tadpole. See the Century Dictionary's definition of miller's-thumb.

    March 15, 2011

  • qms commented on the word caboche

    I found a number of definitions for caboche including this one in the French Wikipedia...

    Une Caboche est un clou à tête carrée qui est utilisée pour fixer les fers à chevaux, pour les clouer il faut évidemment taper sur la caboche, d'où l'expression"tête de caboche"( qui a du mal à assimiler des informations, qui à la tête "dure" ).

    in which a horseshoe nail suggests a particularly thick-skulled person.

    Caboche is not related to "kibosh" but there is much to amuse in the Wordnik entry for that word and it should be visited.

    A caboche is most often defined as a species of fish commonly called a bullhead. I am intrigued by "miller's thumb" as a synonym. I understand that the fish is thought to resemble a thumb, but why a miller's? A miller's thumb is a metonym for an unfair influence. (I have also seen "butcher's thumb" so applied.) Is the bullhead being defamed as a dishonest fish? I see that there is a Miller's Thumb restaurant in Cape Town, SA and a Miller's Thumb art gallery in Vermont. Surely these establishments are not boasting of fraudulent business practices. Can anyone shed light on the appeal of this expression?

    It might be a fish, a flower or some
    Fellow perceived as specially dumb.
    Lexicons are awash
    With words for caboche
    But why is it called a miller's thumb?

    August 9, 2015