cupboard

UK/ˈkʌbəd/US/ˈkʌbəɹd/

nounA2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,265 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: cupboards

A cupboard is the furniture with doors and shelves where plates and dry food live. Kitchen walls are lined with them.

The p is silent, which surprises learners, and the word began literally as a board for cups. American English usually says cabinet or closet. English gets a good deal from it: skeletons in the cupboard are shameful secrets, and cupboard love is affection shown only in the hope of food, which is what a cat gives you at six in the morning.

Definitions of cupboard

1nouncupboardA piece of furniture or recess with doors and shelves for storage.A2+
“The tins are in the cupboard above the kettle.”
- Said"Check the cupboard above the kettle; I think we've got another jar."
- WrittenThe cupboards were painted a green nobody had chosen and nobody could be bothered to change.
- UsedStore dry goods in a cool cupboard away from the cooker.
- ContrastA cupboard, not a drawer. A drawer slides out; a cupboard opens with a door and has shelves. drawer →
- Not thisA wardrobe is not a cupboard. Cupboards hold things; wardrobes hold clothes on hangers.
- Exchange"Where's the flour?""Cupboard by the window, top shelf."
Patternin the cupboard · a kitchen / airing / store cupboard · cupboard door / space · the cupboard is bare

Also accepted in games: cabinet

Remember it

Say it and the p disappears — cubbard — but it is spelt cup + board: at first it was only a board on the wall with the cups standing on it.

hooks ontocup board

Phrases it lives in

a skeleton in the cupboard — a shameful secret from the past

Where it comes from

Middle English
cuppeborde
English, today
cupboard

Inherited from Middle English cuppeborde, cupbord. by surface analysis, cup + board. Phonetic variants show that the /p/ in the original forms had assimilated to the present-day /b/ by the 16th century; the etymological spelling has, however, dominated from the 18th century.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of cupboard

1nouncupboardA piece of furniture or recess with doors and shelves for storage.A2+

“The tins are in the cupboard above the kettle.”

Said"Check the cupboard above the kettle; I think we've got another jar."
WrittenThe cupboards were painted a green nobody had chosen and nobody could be bothered to change.
UsedStore dry goods in a cool cupboard away from the cooker.
ContrastA cupboard, not a drawer. A drawer slides out; a cupboard opens with a door and has shelves. drawer →
Not thisA wardrobe is not a cupboard. Cupboards hold things; wardrobes hold clothes on hangers.
Exchange"Where's the flour?""Cupboard by the window, top shelf."

Patternin the cupboard · a kitchen / airing / store cupboard · cupboard door / space · the cupboard is bare

Also accepted in games: cabinet