Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Cabinet

Cab′i-net

(kăb′ĭ-nĕt)
,
Noun.
[F., dim. of
cabine
or
cabane
. See
Cabin
,
Noun.
]
1.
A hut; a cottage; a small house.
[Obs.]
Hearken a while from thy green
cabinet
,
The rural song of careful Colinet.
Spenser.
2.
A small room, or retired apartment; a closet.
3.
A private room in which consultations are held.
Philip passed some hours every day in his father’s
cabinet
.
Prescott.
4.
The advisory council of the chief executive officer of a nation; a cabinet council.
☞ In England, the
cabinet
or cabinet council consists of those privy councilors who actually transact the immediate business of the government.
Mozley & W.
– In the United States, the
cabinet
is composed of the heads of the executive departments of the government, namely, the Secretary of State, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, and of Agiculture, the Postmaster-general, and the Attorney-general.
5.
(a)
A set of drawers or a cupboard intended to contain articles of value. Hence:
(b)
A decorative piece of furniture, whether open like an étagère or closed with doors. See
étagère
.
6.
Any building or room set apart for the safe keeping and exhibition of works of art, etc.; also, the collection itself.
Cabinet council
.
(a)
Same as
Cabinet
,
Noun.
, 4 (of which body it was formerly the full title).
(b)
A meeting of the cabinet.
Cabinet councilor
,
a member of a cabinet council.
Cabinet photograph
,
a photograph of a size smaller than an imperial, though larger than a
carte de visite
.
Cabinet picture
,
a small and generally highly finished picture, suitable for a small room and for close inspection.

Cab′i-net

,
Adj.
Suitable for a cabinet; small.
He [Varnhagen von Ense] is a walking
cabinet
edition of Goethe.
For. Quar. Rev.

Cab′i-net

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Cabineted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Cabineting
.]
To inclose
[R.]
Hewyt.

Webster 1828 Edition


Cabinet

CABINET

, n.
1.
A closet; a small room, or retired apartment.
2.
A private room, in which consultations are held.
3.
The select or secret council of a prince or executive government; so called from the apartment in which it was originally held.
4.
A piece of furniture, consisting of a chest or box, with drawers and doors. A private box.
5.
Any close place where things of value are reposited for safe keeping.
6.
A hut; a cottage; a small house.

CABINET

,
Verb.
T.
To inclose.

Definition 2024


cabinet

cabinet

English

Noun

cabinet (plural cabinets)

  1. A storage closet either separate from, or built into, a wall.
  2. cupboard
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess:
      ‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’
  3. (historical) A size of photograph, specifically one measuring 3⅞" by 5½".
    • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal In Bohemia, Norton (2005), p. 19,
      Holmes took a note of it. “One other question,” said he. “Was the photograph a cabinet?”
  4. A group of advisors to a government or business entity.
  5. (politics, often capitalized) In parliamentary and some other systems of government, the group of ministers responsible for creating government policy and for overseeing the departments comprising the executive branch.
  6. (archaic) A small chamber or private room.
    • Prescott
      Philip passed some hours every day in his father's cabinet.
  7. (often capitalized) A collection of art or ethnographic objects.
  8. (dialectal, Rhode Island) Milkshake.
  9. (obsolete) A hut; a cottage; a small house.
    • Spenser
      Hearken a while from thy green cabinet, / The rural song of careful Colinet.

Translations

See also

Anagrams


French

Etymology

From Italian gabinetto.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kabinɛ/

Noun

cabinet m (plural cabinets)

  1. (archaic) a study
  2. an office, a surgery
  3. a cabinet
  4. a cabinet of government advisors
  5. (in the plural) the toilet, lavatory