▪ I. cupboard, n.
(ˈkʌbəd)
Forms: 4–6 cup-, cop-, (5 cuppe-, 5–6 cope-, 6 coup-), -bord(e, -bourd(e, -burd(e; 6–7 cupboord, -boarde, 7– -board. Also 5 cowborde, 6 couborde, cowbard, cobord, -erde, cobbourd, -arde, cuppord(e, cubboorde, 6–7 cubbord(e, -ard(e, 7 -erd, -ert, 7–8 -oard, 7 cupbard, -bert.
[A combination of cup or cop (or both) and board. In ME. cop- is frequent in northern sources, cuppe- and coup- rare, cup- most frequent, even at a time when the independent word was regularly spelt cuppe. By the 16th c. the second element was phonetically obscured, and the p of cup- sunk in the following b, as in the existing pronunciation, which is indicated by a multitude of more or less phonetical spellings of the cubberd, cubbert type, often crossed by etymological reminiscences. Since the 18th c. the analytical spelling has prevailed.]
† 1. A ‘board’ or table to place cups and other vessels, etc. on; a piece of furniture for the display of plate; a sideboard, buffet. (See also court-cupboard.) Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1440 Couered mony a cup-borde with cloþes ful quite. c 1380 Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 150 Loke Cristis copborde. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 206 The kyngez cope-borde was closed in silver. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 109 Cupburde, abacus. 1483 Cath. Angl. 75 A Copburde, abacus. 1503 Will in Ripon Ch. Acts 296 Unum copeburd sculptum. 1530 Palsgr. 211/2 Cup borde of plate or to sette plate upon, buffet. 1555 Eden Decades 68 The cobbarde bysyde owr dyninge table. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxv. xlix. (1634) 201 One onely lampe upon the cubbard burning. 1592 Greene Def. Conny Catch. iii. 10 Her mistress..set all her plate on the cubboorde for shewe. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 30 A Candlestick on a Cubbert. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. lxiv, The Officers..got ready the Tables and Cupboards, laid the Cloth. |
† b. transf. A set of vessels displayed upon a sideboard; a service of plate.
Obs.| 1522 Skelton Why not to Court 898 Your cupbord that was, Is tourned to glasse, From sylvere to brasse. 1551 Acts Privy Council Eng. (1891) N.S. III. 288 An other like couborde of the value of m{supl}li; an other cubborde of viij{supc}li. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 219 All the whole cubboord of Plate of Gold and Silver. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 40 She desires you to send her a compleat cupboard of the best christall glasses. 1698 Sir T. Morgan Progr. in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 391 His majesty of France had never the kindness to send him his cupboard of plate. |
2. A closet or a cabinet (often placed in a corner of a room or a recess in the wall) with shelves, for keeping cups, dishes, etc., provisions ready for use, or anything which it is desired to keep safely, as books or valuables.
| 1530 Palsgr. 211/2 Cupborde to putte meate in, dressover. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 104/2 If he haue a cofer, or cupbord, there will he keep it [money] fast locked. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 12 Lockers to put any thing in, as in little Cupberts. 1662 Greenhalgh in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 309 IV. 13 At the east end of the Synagogue standeth a closet, like a very high cupboard, which they call the Ark. 1736 Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 243 If a friend happen to come late, [he] will take care to lock up a scrap for him in the cupboard. 1851 Illust. Lond. News 8 Feb. 98 The cupboard was breadless. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 161 A cupboard with shelves for music-books. |
b. skeleton in the cupboard: see
skeleton.
3. transf. Food, provisions;
esp. in
phr. to cry cupboard, to crave for food, feel hungry. ?
Obs.| c 1665 Roxb. Ball. VI. 529 And all for the love of the cubbard. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 412 My belly cries cupboard. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 60 Should his head ache, or his stomach cry cupboard. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! (1889) 25/2 So now away home, my inside cries cupboard. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. Pertaining or relating to a cupboard, as (in sense 1)
† cupboard banker (see
banker1),
† cupboard cloth; (in sense 2),
cupboard door;
cupboard love, love insincerely professed or displayed for the sake of what one can get by it (
cf. sense 3,
quot. 1665); so
cupboard lover,
cupboard faith;
† cupboard-man, one of an order of disputants in the Inns of Court: so called from their using the cupboard in the hall as a tribune (Douthwaite
Gray's Inn (1886) 81).
b. Of the form or nature of a cupboard, as
cupboard library.
| 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 25 With tablys, trestelys, *cuppe⁓burd bankers. |
| 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 124, iij rede *cupborde clothes of rede worsted. |
| 1640 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 303 For mendinge the *cubert doore in the vesterre. 1862 Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 64 That the cupboard door may have a firm lock to it. |
| 1882 Edna Lyall Donovan x, No *cupboard faith for him. |
| 1845 R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. v. (ed. 2) 102 In his little *cupboard library. |
| 1757 Poor Robin (N.), A *cupboard love is seldom true. |
| 1874 G. W. Dasent Tales from Fjeld 184 To have such a *cupboard lover. |
| c 1625 Whitelocke Lib. Fam. (Camden) 62 In August 1618 being on of the *cubberdmen of the Middle Temple, I went up to argue at the reading. 1660 Vind. of Reading of E. Bagshaw held in Middle Temple 16 My Obligations..to my Cubbardmen, to the Gentlemen of the Bar and under. |
▪ II. cupboard, v. rare.
(
ˈkʌbəd)
[f. prec. n.] trans. To place, shut up, or keep in or as in a cupboard.
| 1565 Darius (1860) 53 He..With the woman also coberdith his lyfe He regardeth neither father nor mother, and al for his wife. 1607 Shakes. Cor. i. i. 103 The Belly..idle and vnactiue, Still cubbording the Viand. a 1658 Cleveland Hue & Cry ii, When Kings are cup-boarded like Cheese, Sights to be seen for pence a piece. |