kitchen cabinet

American

noun

a cupboard built into a kitchen or a chest of drawers for kitchen use, as for dishes and silverware.
a group of unofficial advisers on whom a head of government appears to rely heavily.

kitchen cabinet British

noun

a group of unofficial advisers to a political leader, esp when considered to be more influential than the official cabinet

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

kitchen cabinets

plural

Etymology

Origin of kitchen cabinet

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

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:

kitchen cabinet

I asked Steve after pulling an electric juicer from the back of a kitchen cabinet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

Be honest with yourself: Are you really going to use the dusty waffle maker in your kitchen cabinet?

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 23, 2026

On a kitchen cabinet door, Merritt pinned a multicolored turkey her 3-year-old grandson crafted out of a brown paper bag at Thanksgiving.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2025

Haines joined Wilson's Downing Street operation in 1969 during his first term in office and went on to become part of the Labour leader's "kitchen cabinet" of close political advisers.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2025

Open the kitchen cabinet where the peanut butter was kept and you were face to fossil face with an extinct fox.

From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023