What is "cabinet"

Cabinet \Cab"i*net\ (k[a^]b"[i^]*n[e^]t), n. [F., dim. of cabine or cabane. See Cabin, n.]

1. A hut; a cottage; a small house. [Obs.]

   Hearken a while from thy green cabinet, The rural song of careful Colinet.
   --Spenser.

2. A small room, or retired apartment; a closet.

3. A private room in which consultations are held.

   Philip passed some hours every day in his father's cabinet.
   --Prescott.

4. The advisory council of the chief executive officer of a nation; a cabinet council.

   Note: In England, the cabinet or cabinet council consists of those privy councilors who actually transact the immediate business of the government.
   --Mozley & W. -- In the United States, the cabinet is composed of the heads of the executive departments of the government, namely, the Secretary of State, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, and of Agiculture, the Postmaster-general, and the Attorney-general.

5. 1. A set of drawers or a cupboard intended to contain articles of value. Hence:

   2. A decorative piece of furniture, whether open like an ['e]tag[`e]re or closed with doors. See ['E]tag[`e]re.

6. Any building or room set apart for the safe keeping and exhibition of works of art, etc.; also, the collection itself. Cabinet council.

   1. Same as Cabinet, n., 4 (of which body it was formerly the full title).

   2. A meeting of the cabinet.

      Cabinet councilor, a member of a cabinet council.

      Cabinet photograph, a photograph of a size smaller than an imperial, though larger than a carte de visite.

      Cabinet picture, a small and generally highly finished picture, suitable for a small room and for close inspection.

Cabinet \Cab"i*net\, a. Suitable for a cabinet; small.

He [Varnhagen von Ense] is a walking cabinet edition of Goethe.
--For. Quar. Rev.

Cabinet \Cab"i*net\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Cabineted; p. pr. & vb. n. Cabineting.] To inclose [R.]
--Hewyt.

1540s, "secret storehouse, treasure chamber," from Middle French cabinet "small room" (16c.), diminutive of Old French cabane "cabin" (see cabin); perhaps influenced by (or rather, from) Italian gabbinetto, diminutive of gabbia, from Latin cavea "stall, stoop, cage, den for animals" (see cave (n.)).\n

\nMeaning "case for safe-keeping" (of papers, liquor, etc.) is from 1540s, gradually shading to mean a piece of furniture that does this. Sense of "private room where advisors meet" (c.1600) led to modern political meaning (1640s); perhaps originally short for cabinet council (1630s); compare board (n.1) in its evolution from place where some group meets to the word for the group that meets there.

n. 1 A storage closet either separate from, or built into, a wall. 2 cupboard

1. n: a cupboard-like repository or piece of furniture with doors and shelves and drawers; for storage or display

2. persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of government and act as official advisers

3. a storage compartment for clothes and valuables; usually it has a lock [syn: locker, storage locker]

4. housing for electronic instruments, as radio or television [syn: console]

Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:

Cabinet (or CAB) is an archive file format for Microsoft Windows that supports lossless data compression and embedded digital certificates used for maintaining archive integrity. Cabinet files have .cab filename extensions and are recognized by their first 4 bytes MSCF. Cabinet files were known originally as Diamond files.

The CAB file format may employ the following compression algorithms:

• DEFLATE – invented by Phil Katz, the author of the ZIP file format
• Quantum compression – licensed from David Stafford, the author of the Quantum archiver
• LZX – invented by Jonathan Forbes and Tomi Poutanen, given to Microsoft when Forbes joined the company

A CAB archive can reserve empty spaces in the archive as well as for each file in the archive, for some application-specific uses like digital signatures or arbitrary data. CAB format is used by a variety of Microsoft installation technologies including Windows Installer, Setup API, Device Installer and AdvPack (used by Internet Explorer to install ActiveX components). CAB files are also often associated with self-extracting programs like IExpress where the executable program extracts the associated CAB file. CAB files are also sometimes embedded into other files. For example, MSI and MSU files (the latter are CAB files with just another filename extension) usually included one or more embedded CAB files.

Cabinet is the debut album of the Swedish death metal band Spawn of Possession.

Cabinet is a quarterly, Brooklyn, NY-based, non-profit art & culture magazine established in 2000. Cabinet also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn.

In the European Commission, a cabinet (the French pronunciation, cab-ee-nay, is used) is the personal office of a European Commissioner. The role of a cabinet is to give political guidance to its Commissioner, while technical preparation is handled by the DGs (the European Civil Service).

Cabinet is a 1994 Indian Malayalam film, directed by Saji, starring Sukumaran and Ratheesh in the lead roles.

A cabinet (also known by other terms) was a private room in the houses and palaces of early modern Europe, a room serving as a study or retreat, usually for a man. The cabinet would be furnished with books and works of art, and sited adjacent to his bedchamber, the equivalent of the Italian Renaissance studiolo. In the Late Medieval period, such newly perceived requirements for privacy had been served by the solar of the English gentry house, and a similar, less secular purpose had been served by a private oratory.

Such a room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room. Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants, other household members, and visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that a house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more. Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo), office, and a range of more specifically female equivalents, such as a boudoir.

A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the top leaders of the executive branch. They are usually called ministers, but in some jurisdictions are sometimes called secretaries.

The functions of a cabinet are varied: in some countries it is a collegial decision-making body with collective responsibility, while in others it may function either as a purely advisory body or an assisting institution to a decision making head of state or head of government. In some countries, the cabinet is called "Council of Ministers" or "Government Council" or lesser known names such as "Federal Council" (in Switzerland), "Inner Council" or "High Council". These countries may differ in the way that the cabinet is used or established.

In some countries, particularly those that use a parliamentary system (e.g., the UK), the Cabinet collectively decides the government's direction, especially in regard to legislation passed by the parliament. In countries with a presidential system, such as the United States, the Cabinet does not function as a collective legislative influence; rather, their primary role is as an official advisory council to the head of government. In this way, the President gets opinions and advice in upcoming decisions.

Legally, under both types of systems, the Westminster system and the presidential system, the Cabinet "advises" the Head of State: the difference is that, in a parliamentary system, the monarch, viceroy or ceremonial president will almost always follow this advice, whereas in a presidential system, a president who is also head of government and political leader may depart from the Cabinet's advice if he does not agree with it.

In parliamentary democracies which do not have the Westminster system, very often the Cabinet does not "advise" the Head of State as he (or she) plays only a ceremonial role. Instead, it is usually the Head of Government who holds all means of power in his hands (e.g. in Germany, Sweden, Spain, etc.) and the Cabinet reports to him (or her).

The second role of cabinet officials is to administer executive branch government agencies or departments (in the United States, these are the federal executive departments)

In many parliamentary democracies, including those that use the Westminster system, Cabinet ministers are usually (or mandatory) appointed from among sitting members of the legislature and either remain members of the legislature while serving in the cabinet (e.g. in the United Kingdom), or have to give up their seat in parliament, which is especially the case in countries with a strict separation between the executive and legislative branches of government (e.g. Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium etc.).

The latter is usually also the case in countries with a presidential system: Cabinet members cannot be sitting legislators, and legislators who are offered appointments must resign if they wish to accept.

In most governments, members of the Cabinet are given the title of minister, and each holds a different portfolio of government duties ("Minister for the Environment," etc.).

In a few governments, as in the case of Mexico, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and United States, the title of secretary is also used for some Cabinet members ("Secretary of Education," or "Secretary of State" in the UK). In many countries (e.g. Germany, Luxembourg, France, etc.), a Secretary (of State) is a cabinet member with an inferior rank to a minister.

In some countries (e.g. the US) attorneys general also sit in the cabinet, while in many others this is strictly prohibited as the attorneys general are considered to be part of the judicial branch of government. The day-to-day role of most cabinet members is to serve as the chief of one segment of the executive branch of the national government (or regional government in federal systems) and its respective bureaucracy to whom all other subordinate public servants and employees in that ministry or department have to report.

The size of cabinets varies, although most contain around ten to twenty ministers. Researchers have found an inverse correlation between a country's level of development and cabinet size: on average, the more developed a country is, the smaller is its cabinet.