| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| cabinet |
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| SYLLABICATION: | cab·i·net |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  k b  -n t |
| NOUN: | 1. An upright, cupboardlike repository with shelves, drawers, or compartments for the safekeeping or display of objects. 2. Computer Science The box that houses the main components of a computer, such as the central processing unit, disk drives, and expansion slots. 3. often Cabinet A body of persons appointed by a head of state or a prime minister to head the executive departments of the government and to act as official advisers. 4. Archaic A small or private room set aside for a specific activity. 5. Rhode Island & Southeastern Massachusetts See milk shake (sense 1). See Regional Note at milk shake. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Suitable for storage or display in a cabinet, as because of size or decorative quality. 2. Of, relating to, or being a member of a governmental cabinet: cabinet matters; a cabinet minister. 3. Used in the making of cabinets: teak and other heavy cabinet wood. | | ETYMOLOGY: | French, partly from diminutive of Old North French cabine, gambling-room (perhaps alteration of Old French cabane, small house; see cabin) and partly from Italian gabinetto, closet, chest of drawers; akin to Old North French cabine. N., sense 5, possibly from the square wooden container in which the mixer was encased. | | OTHER FORMS: | cabi·net·ful —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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