cabin
Americannoun
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cabins
plural
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a small house or cottage, usually of simple design and construction.
He was born in a cabin built of rough logs.
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an enclosed space for more or less temporary occupancy, as the living quarters in a trailer or the passenger space in a cable car.
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the enclosed space for the pilot, cargo, or especially passengers in an air or space vehicle.
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an apartment or room in a ship, as for passengers.
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(in a naval vessel) living accommodations for officers.
- Synonyms:
- compartment
adverb
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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a small simple dwelling; hut
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a simple house providing accommodation for travellers or holiday-makers at a motel or holiday camp
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a room used as an office or living quarters in a ship
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a covered compartment used for shelter or living quarters in a small boat
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(in a warship) the compartment or room reserved for the commanding officer
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another name for signal box
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the enclosed part of a light aircraft in which the pilot and passengers sit
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the part of an airliner in which the passengers are carried
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the section of an aircraft used for cargo
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verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cabin
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English cabane, from Middle French, from Old Provençal cabana, from Late Latin capanna, of uncertain, perhaps pre-Latin origin; spelling with “i” perhaps by influence of French cabine ( see cabinet)
Explanation
A small wooden hut or cottage can be called a cabin, especially if it's in a remote or wooded place. Your grandfather's cabin on a lake might be your favorite place to visit in the summer. You might dream of living in a cabin deep in the forest, or on the edge of a mountain. Another kind of cabin is a small compartment or room, particularly one on a ship or an airplane. If you have "cabin fever," it means you're restless and cranky after being stuck in a small space for too long. The word comes from a Late Latin root, capanna, "hut."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He is no longer thriving living alone in a small cabin on the acreage they co-own.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
The rules are different and more complicated when you get downgraded from one cabin to another, say from first class to economy or business to premium economy on international flights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The oval-shaped windows in the cabin, next to passengers' seats, are typically made of plastic-based materials, says Vermont.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
A month before the documentary premiered on Netflix, a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window on a 737-800 Boeing plane when the cabin lost pressure after the plane took off from Thessaloniki, Greece.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Mal was waiting for him when he returned to his cabin.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
The bedrooms themselves differ from those of his typical houses and in character are more like staterooms, comfortable private cabins for sleeping between your turns on deck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The Castello d’Albertis-Montegalletto line is called an elevator, or “ascensore,” but its small cabins are a combination of funicular, cable car and outdoor elevator that travel a vertical distance of around 250 feet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
"The whole ship was a sweat box," he said, with some passengers in cabins that had no windows resorting to sleeping on the ship's roof.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Since the pandemic, several new or revamped lodgings have boosted glamping and other upscale elements in a territory once better known for old cabins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
There were lonely cabins and stone cottages in the heights, and guard towers manned by Ghohg’s soldiers.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
