cupboard

Syllables: cup·board/ˈkʌbəd//ˈkʌbəɹd/

cupboard noun: a board or table used to openly hold and display silver plate and other dishware; a sideboard; a buffet.

Noun

cupboard (plural cupboards)

(obsolete) A board or table used to openly hold and display silver plate and other dishware; a sideboard; a buffet.
- Cupboꝛde of plate or to ſette plate upon buffet z ma.1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The thirde boke”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] , London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 203; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue...
- from the cobbarde byſyde owr dyninge table1555, Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, “The fourth booke of the seconde Decade, of the supposed Continent”, in Richard Eden, transl., Decades of the New World, page 68
Synonyms:

sideboard
(obsolete) Things displayed on a sideboard; dishware, particularly valuable plate.
- But howe comme to pas, / Your cupbord that was / Is tourned to glasse, / From syluere to brasse, / From golde to pewter, / Or els to a newter, / To copper, to tyn, / To lede, or alcumyn?a. 1529, John Skelton, Why Come Ye Nat to Courte?; published in John Skelton; Alexander Dyce, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: With Notes, and Some Account of the Author and His Writings, by the...
A cabinet, closet, or other piece of furniture with shelves intended for storing cookware, dishware, or food; similar cabinets or closets used for storing other items.
- Put the cups back into the cupboard.
- Cupborde to putte meate in – dressover s, m.1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] , London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 211; reprinted as L'éclaircissement de la langue française par Jean...
(Pennsylvania, UK, Western) A closet for storing coats.
- I hung the coat in the cupboard and bided my time.2023, Susie Boyt, “Hot under the collar: the coat of your dreams”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd
(obsolete) Things stored in a cupboard; particularly food.
- Some men they [make] love for what they can get, / And 'tis certain there's many a Lubbard; / Will sigh and will pant, seeming ready to faint, / And all for the love of the cubbard, brave boys! / And all [for the love of the Cup-board].c. 1665, Roxburghe Ballads; published as J[oseph] W[oodfall] Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts, volume VI, Hertford: Printed for the Ballad Society...

Verb

cupboard (third-person singular simple present cupboards, present participle cupboarding, simple past and past participle cupboarded)

To collect, as into a cupboard; to hoard.
- There was a time, when all the bodies members / Rebell'd againſt the Belly; thus accus'd it: / That onely like a Gulfe it did remaine / I'th midd'ſt a th'body, idle and vnactiue, / Still cubbording the Viand, neuer bearing / Like labour with the reſt, where th'other Inſtruments / Did ſee, and...1613, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac...

cupboard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

cupboard in Tamil

enclosed storage: அலமாரி alamāri
a cabinet, closet, or other piece of furniture intended for storing cookware, dishware, or food: அலமாரி alamāri

cupboard in Urdu

enclosed storage: اَلْماری almārī

More languagesFewer languages

cupboard in Bengali: আলমারি almari
cupboard in Telugu: అలమర alamara
cupboard in Malayalam: അലമാരി alamāri
cupboard in Kannada: ಓಡೆ, ಅಂಕಣ, ಅರೆವರಸೆ, ಪತ್ತಿಗೆ
cupboard in Punjabi: الماری almārī, ਅਲਮਾਰੀ alamārī
cupboard in Gujarati: કબાટ kabāṭ
cupboard in Odia: ଆଲମାରି ālmāri
cupboard in Assamese: আলমাৰী almari
cupboard in Pashto: المارۍ almārəy
cupboard in Tagalog: paminggalan, binggal, aparador, platera
cupboard in Arabic: خِزَانَة ḵizāna
cupboard in Malay: almari, gerobok
cupboard in Indonesian: lemari
cupboard in Thai: ตู้ dtûu, ตู้กับข้าว dtûu-gàp-kâao, ตู้อาหาร dtûu-aa-hǎan
cupboard in Vietnamese: tủ, tủ đựng chén, tủ búp phê, tủ chè

Examples of cupboard in a sentence

Old Mother Hubbard / Went to the cupboard, / To give the poor dog a bone; / When she came there, / The cupboard was bare, / And so the poor dog had none.1814 May 1, “Minimus” [pseudonym], “Fine Arts”, in The Satirist, or Monthly Meteor, volume XIV, number 18 (New Series), London: Printed for...
A cupboard with shelves for music-books.1874, J[ohn] T[homas] Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches: Their Plan, Design, and Furniture, London: Henry S. King & Co. 65 Cornhill and...
As he had figured it out so far, the cupboard, or the key, or both together, brought plastic things to life, or if they were already alive, turned them into plastic.1980, Lynne Reid Banks, “Thirty Scalps”, in The Indian in the Cupboard, London: J. M. Dent, →ISBN:
Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.1997, J[oanne] K[athleen] Rowling, “The Vanishing Glass”, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with cupboard

Synonyms of cupboard

Forms of cupboard

plural	cupboards
alternative form (obsolete)	cobbarde
alternative form (obsolete)	cobbourd
alternative form (obsolete)	coberde
alternative form (obsolete)	cobord
alternative form (obsolete)	copbord
alternative form (obsolete)	copborde
alternative form (obsolete)	copbourd
alternative form (obsolete)	copbourde
alternative form (obsolete)	copburd
alternative form (obsolete)	copburde
alternative form (obsolete)	couborde
alternative form (obsolete)	cowbard
alternative form (obsolete)	cubbard
alternative form (obsolete)	cubbarde
alternative form (obsolete)	cubberd
alternative form (obsolete)	cubbert
alternative form (obsolete)	cubboard
alternative form (obsolete)	cubboorde
alternative form (obsolete)	cubbord

Plural of cupboard: cupboards

Origin of 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.

Words formed from cupboard

Phrases with cupboard

Words that rhyme with cupboard

Questions about cupboard

What does cupboard mean?: Cupboard means a board or table used to openly hold and display silver plate and other dishware; a sideboard; a buffet.
What is cupboard in Hindi?: Cupboard in Hindi is अलमारी (almārī). See Cupboard meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cupboard in a sentence?: Old Mother Hubbard / Went to the cupboard, / To give the poor dog a bone; / When she came there, / The cupboard was bare, / And so the poor dog had none.
What part of speech is cupboard?: Cupboard can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cupboard?: Cupboard is pronounced /ˈkʌbəd/ (UK).
What is the plural of cupboard?: The plural of cupboard is cupboards.

Words near cupboard in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cupboard (page history and authors); कपाट (Marathi) (page history and authors); అలమర (Telugu) (page history and authors); cupboard (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); الماری (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કબાટ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଆଲମାରି (Odia) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-cupboard.ogg, En-us-cupboard.ogg, en-au-cupboard.ogg.

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