Word.ws English Dictionary

cry cupboard

Syllables: cry cup·boardUK/kɹaɪ ˈkʌbəd//kɹaɪ ˈkʌbəɹd/

cry cupboard verb: chiefly of one's stomach: to need or want food; to show signs of hunger; to hunger.

Verb

cry cupboard (third-person singular simple present cries cupboard, present participle crying cupboard, simple past and past participle cried cupboard)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic, intransitive, obsolete) Chiefly of one's stomach: to need or want food; to show signs of hunger; to hunger.
    • My belly cries Cup⸗board; […]1681, William Robertson, “Cup⸗board”, in Phraseologia generalis; […]. A Full, Large, and General Phrase Book; […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] John Hayes, printer to the University; [a]nd are to...
    • Footman. Madam, Dinner's upon the Table. / Col[onel]. Faith, I am glad of it; my Belly began to cry Cupboard.1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue II”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738...

Forms of cry cupboard

third-person singular presentcries cupboard
present participlecrying cupboard
past participlecried cupboard
pastcried cupboard

Origin of cry cupboard

From cry (verb) + cupboard (“(by extension) food, provisions”, noun), probably comparing one’s stomach growling from hunger to a person calling out for food which is traditionally stored in a cupboard.

Words that rhyme with cry cupboard

Questions about cry cupboard

What does cry cupboard mean?
Cry cupboard means chiefly of one's stomach: to need or want food; to show signs of hunger; to hunger.
What part of speech is cry cupboard?
Cry cupboard is a verb.
How do you pronounce cry cupboard?
Cry cupboard is pronounced /kɹaɪ ˈkʌbəd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of cry cupboard?
The past tense of cry cupboard is cried cupboard.

Words near cry cupboard in the dictionary

  1. cry beef
  2. cry blue murder
  3. cry buckets
  4. cry carrots and turnips
  5. cry craven
  6. cry cupboard
  7. cry down
  8. cry for help
  9. cry foul
  10. cry from the housetop
  11. cry from the housetops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cry cupboard (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-cry cupboard.wav.

Cite this entry: “cry cupboard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cry_cupboard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.