adj
Meaning 1
Cupboardlike: for example small, fusty or poorly lit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: rare
Examples
- 1886, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney, Bonnyborough, Houghton, Mifflin, p. 129, I detest a room that is for nothing but eating; and one that is only for leather and paper and printer's ink gets cupboardy and musty in a hardly less undesirable way."
- 1889, J. E. (Jane Ellen) Panton, Bypaths and Cross-roads, Ward and Downey, p. 265, Ah ! we may smile as we walk behind our hostess as she discourses eagerly over her pickles and preserves, and we scent the queer lavender "cupboardy" smell that hangs about the upstairs rooms, each bed appropriately attired in a ghost-like dust-sheet.
- 1907, William John Thomas, Doran (John), Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, Notes and Queries, G. Bell, etc p. 287, (editors note after a letter by Thomas Ratcliffe re cubbardy) "Cupboardy" is recorded in the 'NED' as a nonce-word, with a quotation from Miss Braddon.
- 1969, David Wright, Deafness: A personal Account, Faber & Faber, read in Jill Jepson, No Walls of Stone: An Anthology of Literature by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Writers, Gallaudet University Press (2002) →ISBN, p. 156, I was ushered along a dark cupboardy passage that led to the dining-room.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided