cupboard

«cupboard» in Mova's school dictionary: a piece of furniture or a space in a wall with doors and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (cupboard, cupboards)

meaning for a pupil

A cupboard is a piece of furniture or a space in a wall with doors and shelves, where you keep cups, plates, food or clothes. tree →

sense in the lessons

maths: a place where things are stored, sometimes with shelves and things on each shelf (shelves × items each = total; what is left = total − taken); everyday life: kitchen cupboard, the food cupboard; safety: cleaning things belong in a high or locked cupboard; stories: something hiding in the cupboard

examples

• There are 24 cups in the cupboard. tree →
• The cupboard has 4 shelves with 6 plates on each. tree →
• She took 3 cans from the cupboard. tree →
• How many jars are left in the cupboard? tree →
• Put the plates back in the cupboard. tree →
• The cereal is in the top cupboard. tree →
• Cleaning sprays are kept in a locked cupboard. tree →
• Close the cupboard door. tree →
• I have a whole cupboard-full of poetry in bottles. tree →

note

Mostly a place; shelves × items on each give a total. Trap: none special. The p is silent: say «KUB-urd». US English often says «cabinet»; British «cupboard» can also mean a closet.

In the corpora

• Mum opens the cupboard and finds tiny dark droppings like grains of rice and a chewed hole in the cereal packet.
• The sides of the well were filled with cupboards and book-shelves, with maps and pictures hung on pegs.
• You should never hide under a bed or in a cupboard during a fire, because firefighters may not find you.
• Rooms you are not invited into and cupboards are private.
• To reach a high cupboard, use a steady step stool or ask someone tall, never a wheeled chair or the counter edge.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «cupboard» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.