cupboardy

comparative more cupboardy · superlative most cupboardy

1. rareCupboardlike: for example small, fusty or poorly lit.

   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."

   4 more examples

   Caroline and Amelia were rather short in their tempers that night at hair-brushing time, and Lucy was glad to have her funny little cupboardy room all to herself.

   1877, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, In Great Waters, and Other Tales, Adamant Media Corporation, →ISBN, page 231

   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.

2. archaicAssociated with cupboard love.

   1 more example

   Down, Jack, you cupboardy dog!" The rough terrier thus unceremoniously addressed had been making a tour of inspection round Else ever since her arrival; but a sudden impression that there was such a thing as bread and butter to be had overmastered curiosity, and turning away...he sat up on end and wagged his paws just in front of his mistress.

   1880, Cecilia Findlay, Cross purposes, Marcus Ward & Co, page 32