kitchen cabinet

American  

noun

1. a cupboard built into a kitchen or a chest of drawers for kitchen use, as for dishes and silverware.

2. a group of unofficial advisers on whom a head of government appears to rely heavily.

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kitchen cabinet British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of kitchen cabinet

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

A kitchen cabinet had come undone, and I needed a bracket and some glue to piece it back together.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

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

From MarketWatch • Feb. 23, 2026

Before the move, they had a comfortable life in a small beach town in northern Iran, where his father owned a kitchen cabinet factory.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 7, 2026

Last May, Fabuwood, a kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Newark, instituted a new company policy: No phones allowed during meetings.

From New York Times • Feb. 1, 2024

Each night he washed the one plate he used and wiped it dry and set it back in its place on top of the stack of dishes Thula had left behind in a kitchen cabinet.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown