cardboard
Americannoun
adjective
-
resembling cardboard, especially in flimsiness.
an apartment with cardboard walls.
-
not fully lifelike; shallow; two-dimensional.
a play with cardboard characters.
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of cardboard
Explanation
The heavy, rigid paper that's used to make the boxes you use for mailing things is called cardboard. Cardboard also comes in handy for crafts and projects in classrooms. A lot of cardboard is made from several layers of thick paper, so that it's stiff and strong, and protects items inside cardboard boxes. You can also use the word cardboard to describe a fictional character who doesn't seem real: "The mother in the movie was such a cardboard character." In the 18th century, cardboard was known as card paper.
Vocabulary lists containing cardboard
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.
Ducking into Maryam Lashkari, Hodjat Salimi and Oscar Tuazon’s interactive sculpture — an enormous cardboard tube lying on its side — feels like entering a culvert or a bomb shelter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
He pointed to a pile of litter and flattened cardboard boxes on the concrete ground where he said he was sleeping at night.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
In France the government has pestered the public to wet their skin, drink cold soup and block windows with cardboard to beat the heat—anything to avoid resorting to AC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Another soldier, Natasha, said the protesters with their makeshift cardboard placards, were a long way from the daily brutality of the front line.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Their contents were so simple in the beginning: wooden blocks and cardboard books.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
