noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A Japanese dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables, cooked piece by piece in hot water at the table by the diners. uncountable

Example

More examples

"A light lunch at MacD's, coffee at Starbucks, then a few drinks with shabu-shabu - that's the way it went."

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese しゃぶしゃぶ (shabushabu); onomatopoeic, resembling the sound emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the pot.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.