Cabinet: A Cupboard That Became a Government

A cabinet is a storage case with doors, shelves or drawers. The political sense comes from the same word used for a small private room. Advisers meeting in the monarch's cabinet became known by the room, and the room's name outlived the practice.

• A piece of furniture with doors. *A glass display cabinet.*
• The senior ministers of a government. *The cabinet met on Tuesday.*
• A small private room (historical). *The king's cabinet.*
• A housing for equipment. *A server cabinet.*

Word forms

How it is used in a sentence

• Keep medicines in a locked cabinet.The furniture sense.
• The Cabinet approved the measure.Often capitalised when it means a specific government body.
• Cabinet responsibility means ministers must defend agreed policy publicly.A constitutional convention in parliamentary systems.

Cabinet, cupboard, wardrobe and dresser

• Cabinet — often glazed or specialised, for display or filing
• Cupboard — general storage with doors and shelves
• Wardrobe — tall, for hanging clothes
• Dresser — shelves above, drawers or cupboards below; in America a chest of drawers

From French *cabinet*, a small room, a diminutive of *cabine*. Cabinetmaker names the finest branch of woodworking, because such furniture demanded the closest joints and the best finish.