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Webster 1913 Edition

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Noun.

[F.]

Originally, a kind of ruffle worn by men on the bosom of the shirt.

An arrangement of lace or tulle, looped ornamentally, and worn by women on the front of the dress.

See also: jabōt and Jabōt

Portrait of Mozart wearing a jabot.

jabot ‎(plural jabots)

A cascading or ornamental frill down the front of a blouse, shirt, etc.
- 1944, Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake, Penguin 2011, p. 136:
  She was wearing tan today, with a ruffled jabot at her throat.
- 1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby:
  She was a dream of winter bourgeois elegance: little black town suit with tiny white jabot of lace-froth; pencil skirt; three-quarter-length coat with lynx collar; long green gloves of suède; suède shoes of dull green; two shades of green in her leafy velvet hat: slim, clean, lithe-looking, delicately painted.

a cascading or ornamental frill down the front of a blouse

Possibly related to gaver ‎(“to force-feed”), or from Vulgar Latin *gaba ‎(“maw, mullet”).

jabot m ‎(plural jabots)