▪ I. cabinet, n.
(ˈkæbɪnɪt)
Forms: 6–7 cabanet, cabbonet, cabonet, 6– cabinet, (7 cabbinet).
[app. Eng. dim. of cabin n., as seen by the earlier forms cabanet, cabonet, which go with the earlier forms of cabin; but in senses 3–6 largely influenced by F. cabinet, which according to Scheler and Brachet is not a direct derivative of F. cabane, but ad. It. gabinetto (= Sp. gabinete) ‘closet, press, chest of drawers’, app. a dialectal It. word going back to the same origin as cabin n.]
I. A little cabin, room, repository. (Senses 1–3 run parallel to those of bower 1–3.)
† 1. a. A little cabin, hut, soldier's tent; a rustic cottage; a dwelling, lodging, tabernacle; a den or hole of a beast. Obs.
| 1572 Digges Stratiot. (1579) 120 The Lance Knights encamp always in the field very strongly, two or three to a Cabbonet. 1597 Lyly Wom. in Moone iv. i. 194 He hath thrust me from his cabanet. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 105 A flock of..four-footed beasts, came about their cabanet. |
| β 1579 Fenton Guicciard. iv. (1599) 178 The whole campe was constrained..to pitch their Cabinets within the ditches. 1591 Spenser Daphn. 558, I him desyrde sith daie was overcast..To turne aside unto my cabinet, And staie with me. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 853 The gentle larke..From his moyst cabinet mounts vp on hie. a 1640 Day Peregr. Schol. (1881) 54 Where snakes..and half-starvd crocodiles made them sommer beds and winter cabbinets. |
† b. fig. ‘Tabernacle’. Obs.
| 1614 T. Adams Devill's Banq. 205 Whereas the Soule might dwell in the body..shee findes it a crazy, sickish, rotten cabinet. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentl. (1641) 413/1 Their bodies..were too fraile Cabonets for such rich eminences to lodge in. |
† 2. A summer-house or bower in a garden. Obs.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Dec. 17 The greene cabinet. 1590 ― F.Q. ii. xii. 83 Their Gardens did deface, Their Arbers spoyld, their Cabinets suppresse. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. xii. 44 Externall, as Groues, Arbours, Bowers, Cabinets, Allies, Ambulatories. 1737 Miller Gard. Dict., Cabinet, in a Garden, is a Conveniency which differs from an Arbour, in this; that an Arbour..is of a great Length..but a Cabinet is either square, circular, or in Cants, making a kind of a Salon. |
3. A small chamber or room; a private apartment, a boudoir. arch. or Obs.
| 1565 Earl of Bedford in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 186 II. 210 Ther is a cabinet abowte xii footes square, in the same a lyttle lowe reposinge bedde, and a table, at the which ther were syttinge at the supper the Quene..and David [Rizzio]. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1133 Sending us unto womens chambers and cabinets. 1609 Bible (Douay) Gen. vi. 14 Cabinets shalt thou make in the arke. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. iii. 118 The king, who was then retired to his cabinet. 1814 Scott Wav. I. ii. 20 The stained window of the gloomy cabinet in which they were seated. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall ii. 9 A small cabinet which he calls his study. |
† 4. A room devoted to the arrangement or display of works of art and objects of vertu; a museum, picture-gallery, etc. Obs. or arch.
| 1676 Hobbes Iliad (1686) Pref. 7 Which [a painting]..will not be worthy to be plac'd in a Cabinet. 1727 Pope, etc. Art Sinking 101 A curious person in a cabinet of antique statues, etc. 1796 J. Owen Trav. Europe II. 124 The Musæum at Portici is the most interesting cabinet in Europe, to a man not professedly scientific. The generality of cabinets are schools of study, rather than exhibitions. |
5. A case for the safe custody of jewels, or other valuables, letters, documents, etc.; and thus, a repository or case, often itself forming an ornamental piece of furniture, fitted with compartments, drawers, shelves, etc., for the proper preservation and display of a collection of specimens. Also, one containing a radio or television receiver or the like.
| c 1550 in Our Eng. Home (1861) 164 Fayre large cabonett, covered with crimson vellet..with the Kings armes crowned. a 1631 Donne Select. (1840) 24 The best jewel in the best cabinet. 1680 Sir C. Lyttelton in Hatton Corr. (1878) 232 Tother day, in shifting of a cabinet..I found abundance of y{supr} letters. 1742 Chesterfield Lett. I. lxxxix. 250 That fine wood, of which you see screens, cabinets, and tea-tables. 1839 Thirlwall Greece III. 129 Papers had been found in Alexander's cabinet, containing the outlines of some vast projects. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 44 In innumerable cabinets may be found series of tin coins. 1934 Webster, Console..a cabinet, often decorated, for a radio receiving set, and designed to be placed against a wall. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 245 Many people..‘like a loudspeaker to sound like a loudspeaker’, i.e., to exhibit cone and cabinet resonances. Ibid. 251 Enclosure, a loudspeaker cabinet. |
† 6. fig. A secret receptacle, treasure-chamber, store-house; arcanum, etc. Obs.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. (1873) 7, I socht all the secreit corneris of my gazophile..vitht in the cabinet of my interior thochtis. 1634 Sanderson Serm. II. 312 That counsel of His, which is lockt up in the cabinet of His secret will. 1660 Trial Regic. 173, I look upon the Nation as the Cabinet of the world. 1667 Oldenburg in Phil. Trans. II. 411 By Anatomy we have sometimes enter'd into the Chambers and Cabinets of Animal Functions. |
¶ Short for cabinet photograph (11, 14).
II. In politics.
7. a. As a specific use of 3: The private room in which the confidential advisers of the sovereign or chief ministers of a country meet; the council-chamber. Originally in the literal sense; now taken chiefly for what goes on or is transacted there, i.e. political consultation and action, as ‘the field’ is taken for ‘fighting, warlike action’.
| 1607–12 [see 8 a]. 1625 W. Yonge Diary (1848) 83 The King made choice of six of the nobility for his Council of the Cabinet. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 90 Weak, unactive, and purely for the Cabinet. 1693 Mem. Ct. Teckely ii. 117 Neither a Man of the Cabinet, nor of the War. 1700 Dryden Fabl. Ded., You began in the Cabinet what you afterwards practis'd in the Camp. 1804 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. III. 145 Equally great in the cabinet as in the field. 1860 Trollope Framley P. i. 12 Harold in early life had intended himself for the cabinet. |
b. The body of persons who meet in such a cabinet; that limited number of the ministers of the sovereign or head of the state who are in a more confidential position and have, in effect, with the head of the state, the determination and administration of affairs.
Formerly called more fully the Cabinet Council, as distinguished from the Privy Council, and as meeting in the cabinet; the later abbreviation is like the use of ‘the House’, ‘the field’, for those who fill or frequent it, and would be encouraged by such expressions as ‘he is of the cabinet’ used of Vane by Roe, 1630. member of the cabinet is later.
| 1644 Mercurius Brit. 44. 347 According to..the practice of your Cabinet or Junto; but our State Committee know better. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 108 Every thing was then managed by the jealousie of her Mysterious Cabinet. a 1734 North Lives I. 380 As for his lordship's being taken into the cabinet. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 6 The cabinets of Europe..have endeavoured to keep up a constant equilibrium between the different states. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India ii. i, He had been authorised by the Prince Regent to attempt the formation of a cabinet. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 211 Few things in our history are more curious than the origin and growth of the power now possessed by the Cabinet. 1874 Bancroft Footpr. Time iii. 236 The members of the President's Cabinet. |
† c. A meeting of this body. Now called a ‘Cabinet council’, or ‘meeting of the Cabinet’.
(What is now called ‘the Cabinet’ was formerly ‘the Cabinet Council’, and what is now ‘a Cabinet Council’ was formerly termed ‘a Cabinet’.)
| 1711 Swift Lett. (1768) III. 195 To day the duke was forced to go to the race while the cabinet was held. 1788–9 Dk. Leeds Polit. Mem. (1884) 140 There was a Cabinet at my office. 1805 Pitt in Ld. Stanhope Life III. 318 A Cabinet is summoned for twelve to-morrow. |
8. Cabinet Council: a. the earlier appellation of the body now styled the Cabinet: see 7 b.
Apparently introduced, at the accession of Charles I, in 1625; but the expression cabinet counsel = counsel given privately or secretly in the cabinet or private apartment, occurs earlier and, from the confusion of counsel and council, was prob. a factor in the name: see Cabinet Counsellor in 9.
| [1607–12 Bacon Counsel, Ess. (Arb.) 318 For which inconveniences the doctrine of Italy, and practize of Fraunce, [ed. 1625 in some Kings times] hath introduced Cabanett Councelles [ed. 1612 Cabanet counsels; 1625 Cabinet counsels], a remedy worse than the disease. 1623 Massinger Dk. Milan ii. i. 10 No, those are cabinet councils, And not to be communicated, but To such as are his own, and sure.] |
| 1632 Massinger Maid of Hon. i. i. 6 Though a counsellor of state, I am not of the cabinet council. 1646–7 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1702) I. ii. 117 These persons made up the Committee of State (which was reproachfully after call'd the Juncto, and enviously then in the Court the Cabinet Council). Ibid. ii. §61 That Committee of the Council which used to be consulted in secret affairs. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. (1739) 201 The sense of State once contracted into a Privy Council, is soon recontracted into a Cabinet-Council, and last of all into a Favourite or two. 1668 Howe Bless. Righteous Wks. (1834) 250/2 To know his [i.e. God's] Secrets; to be as it were of the Cabinet-Council. 1727 Swift To very yng. Lady, Never take a favourite waiting-maid into your cabinet-council. a 1734 North Lives II. 51 Thus the cabinet council which at first was but in the nature of a private conversation, came to be a formal council, and had the direction of most transactions of the Government. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 143 Cabinet Council.—This body, though without any recognised legal existence, constitutes, in effect, the government of the country. It consists of a certain number of privy councillors, comprising the principal ministers of the Crown for the time being, who are summoned to attend at each meeting. |
b. now, A meeting or consultation of the ‘cabinet’.
| 1679 J. Goodman Penitent Pardon. i. iii. (1713) 54 God Almighty..never..leaves them to guess at the transactions in his Cabinet-Council. 1688 Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 295 Carried to Newgate, after examination at the Cabinet Council. 1726 Berkeley in Fraser Life iv. (1871) 138 The point was carried..in the cabinet council. |
9. Cabinet Counsellor, a private counsellor; a member of the Cabinet.
| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. vi. 3 For a Cabanet-Counsellour at all times, he had his owne Mother, Matildis the Empresse. 1633 Massinger Guardian ii. iii, You are still my cabinet counsellors. 1640 Bastwick Lord Bps. i. A iv, It seems he is one of Christs Cabinet Counsellors, that he is so intimately privie to his thoughts. |
III. attrib. and in Comb.
10. Of the cabinet, as a private place; private, secret.
| 1607–23 Cabinet Counsel [see 8]. 1611–40 Cabinet Counsellor [see 9]. 1638 Penit. Conf. vi. (1657) 96 That laid open their Cabinet sins. 1654 Warren Unbelievers 119 There are some Cabinet, secret thoughts, and purposes in God. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. 37 As if others had not received such private Instructions as themselves, being Cabinet-Historians. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1704) III. xi. 197 He was likewise very strict in observing the hours of his private Cabinet Devotions. |
11. Of such value, beauty, or size, as to be fitted for a private chamber, or kept in a cabinet. Sometimes more or less technical, as in cabinet edition, one smaller and less costly than a library edition, but tastefully rather than cheaply got up; cabinet organ, ‘a superior class and size of reed organ’; cabinet photograph (see cabinet-sized in 14); cabinet piano, etc.
| 1696 Phillips, Cabinet Organ, a Portative Organ. 1708 Kersey, Cabinet-organ, a little Organ, that may be easily carry'd, or remov'd from one Place to another. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. 430 One admires musick and paintings, cabinet-curiositys, and in-door ornaments. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 859 Cabinet Wares. 1817 L. Hunt Let. in Gentl. Mag. May (1876) 601 A cabinet piano. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 147 It is quite a cabinet picture. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 18 Cabinet pictures are so named because they are so small in size as to be readily contained in a cabinet. Mod. The Cabinet edition of Macaulay. |
12. Fit for cabinet making.
| 1849 Freese Comm. Class-bk. 17 Cabinet woods, are the qualities used for making all kinds of household furniture, as mahogany, rose-wood, cedar, satin-wood. |
13. Of or pertaining to the political cabinet, as cabinet minister, etc.
| 1632, etc. [see sense 8]. 1806 Deb. Congress 5 Mar. (1852) 561 My answer was (and from a Cabinet Minister too) ‘There is no longer any cabinet.’ Ibid. 13 Mar. 765 The gentleman's [sc. Mirabeau's] fondness for Cabinet rank and Utopian glory. 1817 Parl. Deb. 1356 Did any body suppose that three years spent in a cabinet office were sufficient to entitle the individual to a cabinet pension? 1825 Ann. Reg. 1812 (Chron.) 233 List of His Majesty's Ministers. January, 1812. Cabinet Ministers. Earl Camden..Lord President of the Council. 1867 W. Bagehot Eng. Constitution i. 22 This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government. 1938 Ann. Reg. 1937 31 The second reading of the Ministers of the Crown Bill..was moved on April 12 by Sir John J. Simon, who pointed out that it was for the first time placing on the Statute-book the terms ‘Cabinet’ and ‘Cabinet Minister’. |
14. Comb. cabinet-box = cabinet 5; cabinet-founder; cabinet pudding, a pudding made of bread or cake, dried fruit, eggs and milk, usually served hot with a sauce; cabinet-sized a., of fit size for placing in a cabinet; (a photograph) of the size larger than a carte-de-visite.
| 1655 Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. Index 7 A total locking of Cabinet-boxes. 1800 New Ann. Directory 227 Underhill, J., Cabinet-founder and Ironmonger. 1821 W. Kitchiner Cook's Oracle (ed. 3) 430 Newcastle or Cabinet Pudding. Butter a half melon mould, or quart basin, and stick all round with dried cherries, or fine raisins, and fill up with bread and butter. 1822 L. E. Ude French Cook (ed. 7) 348 Cabinet Pudding or Chancellor's Pudding. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 186 A nice cabinet-sized photograph of her. 1958 B. Hamilton Too much of Water i. 18 Picking with extreme caution at the last vestiges of a sort of cabinet pudding. |
Add: [11.] cabinet wine (also ellipt.), a designation for a special reserve of German wine; now rare (cf. *Kabinett n.).
| 1833 C. Redding Hist. & Descrip. Mod. Wines vii. 205 That called the ‘Cabinet’, from the vintage of 1811, brought seventy pounds sterling the ahm. 1872 Thudichum & Dupré Treat. Origin Wine xvii. 564 The so-called Cabinet, where the cabinet wines are kept..is a vault above ground. 1952 H. W. Allen White Wines & Cognac viii. 157 Those tremendous wines of Schloss Johannisberg and Steinberg, known everywhere, as Cabinet wines, belong to the world of pomp and ceremonial. 1965 A. Sichel Penguin Bk. Wines iii. 178 In some cases Cabinet wines are further classified by individual owners by the use of different-coloured seals or capsules. |
▪ II. ˈcabinet, v.
Pa. tense and pple. -eted.
[f. prec.]
trans. To enclose in or as in a cabinet.
| c 1642 Observator Defended 11 That government, which our Laws are lockt and cabenetted in. a 1658 J. Hewitt Serm. 87 (R.) To adore the casket, and contemn the jewel that is cabinetted in it. 1660 Charac. Italy 80 The Priest, who as yet was cabinetted up in the Merchants house. 1854 J. W. Warter Last of Old Sq. v. 44 That a heart of hearts was cabinetted in a person the most attractive. |