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.
The package will arrive on time, in unmarked brown cardboard, in two days.
From Salon • May 27, 2026
For crucial scenes portraying the palace hallway in Egypt, where Moses talks to the Pharaoh, they built cardboard boxes as the columns in the palace, and “reskinned” them with intricate carvings using AI.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
Attorneys for Lipa filed the suit Friday in a US court in California, claiming "massive, continuing, unauthorized commercial exploitation of her valuable image and likeness by Samsung on cardboard television boxes."
From Barron's • May 11, 2026
Bobby, along with thousands of colleagues, carried his career out in a cardboard box.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
We wore orange space suits that my mom had made from old curtains, and square space helmets we’d made from cardboard boxes.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
