CABINET

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cabinet mean? 

• CABINET (noun)
  The noun CABINET has 4 senses:

1. a piece of furniture resembling a cupboard with doors and shelves and drawers; for storage or display

2. persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of government and act as official advisers

3. a storage compartment for clothes and valuables; usually it has a lock

4. housing for electronic instruments, as radio or television

  Familiarity information: CABINET used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CABINET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A piece of furniture resembling a cupboard with doors and shelves and drawers; for storage or display

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("cabinet" is a kind of...):

article of furniture; furniture; piece of furniture (furnishings that make a room or other area ready for occupancy)

Meronyms (parts of "cabinet"):

shelf (a support that consists of a horizontal surface for holding objects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cabinet"):

china cabinet; china closet (a cabinet (usually with glass doors) for storing and displaying china)

dresser (a cabinet with shelves)

medicine cabinet; medicine chest (cabinet that holds medicines and toiletries)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of government and act as official advisers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("cabinet" is a kind of...):

advisory board; planning board (a board appointed to advise the chief administrator)

Meronyms (members of "cabinet"):

cabinet minister (the job of a senior minister who is a member of the cabinet)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cabinet"):

British Cabinet (the senior ministers of the British government)

shadow cabinet (a group of senior members of the political party that is out of power; these members would probably assume corresponding positions as ministers in the British Cabinet if their party was elected)

United States Cabinet; US Cabinet (a board to advise the President; members are the secretaries of executive departments; the United States constitution does not provide for the cabinet)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A storage compartment for clothes and valuables; usually it has a lock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cabinet; locker; storage locker

Hypernyms ("cabinet" is a kind of...):

compartment (a partitioned section, chamber, or separate room within a larger enclosed area)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cabinet"):

glory hole; lazaretto (a small locker at the stern of a boat or between decks of a ship)

Holonyms ("cabinet" is a part of...):

locker room (a room (as at an athletic facility or workplace) where you can change clothes and which contains lockers for the temporary storage of your clothing and personal possessions)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Housing for electronic instruments, as radio or television

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cabinet; console

Hypernyms ("cabinet" is a kind of...):

housing (a protective cover designed to contain or support a mechanical component)

 Context examples 

I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as he told the doctor.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

London hummed solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only broken by the sounds of a footfall moving to and fro along the cabinet floor.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We visited the wondrous cave and the little cabinets of natural history, where the curiosities are disposed in the same manner as in the collections at Servox and Chamounix.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, who was then retired to his cabinet.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Of course that is all that is expected of us when we are on mantels and cabinets and drawing-room tables, but our lives are much pleasanter here in our own country.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A refrigerated cabinet or room for preserving materials at or below 32F (0C).

(Freezer, NCI Thesaurus)

The cabinet in which his mother had kept his letters was there.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman’s dress.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Or that she should be the first to possess the skill of unlocking a cabinet, the key of which was open to all!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)