Cabinet means a cupboard with shelves or drawers for dishes, medicine or documents: a filing cabinet is a piece of furniture with drawers for papers. The Cabinet with a capital C is the group of senior government ministers. A room where you work has other names: at work it is an office, at home it is a study, and a doctor's room is a consulting room.
cabinet: will you get the meaning right?
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a kitchen/bathroom/filing + cabinet; in/on top of + the cabinet; the Cabinet (government ministers); a cabinet + minister/meeting
- I keep plasters and painkillers in the bathroom cabinet above the sink.
- Old contracts are kept in a locked filing cabinet in the accounts department.
- The prime minister announced the changes after a long cabinet meeting.
What changed
First versionThe director is waiting for you in his cabinet on the fifth floor.
RevisionThe director is waiting for you in his office on the fifth floor.
The director is waiting in the room where he works, and that is an office. A cabinet is a cupboard, so the sentence sounds as if the director is sitting in a cupboard on the fifth floor. In some languages, a word that sounds almost the same does mean an office, and this causes the mistake.
British speakers usually call a kitchen cabinet a cupboard: The cups are in the cupboard. Cabinet sounds a little more formal and usually appears in combinations like bathroom cabinet or filing cabinet. In American English, kitchen cabinets is an everyday phrase. A tall cupboard for clothes is a wardrobe.
Your turn
I'm working from home today, so I'll be in my ___ with the door closed until lunch.
Show the answer
study — The person is working at home in a separate room with the door closed, which is a study. A cabinet, a cupboard for dishes or files, is too small for a person, however familiar the word may look.
Describe your workspace, in an office or at home. Say where it is and where you keep your papers or things.
I work in a small office next to the kitchen, and I keep all my papers in a grey filing cabinet under the desk.
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