cabin

KAB-in/ˈkæbɪn/

Pluralcabins

Verbcabins, cabining, cabined

12 meanings of cabin

Practice

1
nounUScountable
A small house, often made from logs, that people built themselves to live in.
Like a little wooden house you make yourself instead of buying one.
The family built a small cabin from logs near the river.
Settlers lived in cabins they raised with their own hands.
Similarhut, shack, shanty
Note
2
nouncolloquialcountable
A large lodge or country house where a big group of people can stay together.
Like a big house you rent so a whole group can stay in one place.
We rented a cabin big enough for all our cousins.
The summer camp's cabins each slept twenty kids.
Similarlodge, chalet
3
nouncountable
The inside part of a plane where passengers sit.
Like the inside of a bus where all the riders sit.
The cabin filled with passengers before takeoff.
Flight attendants walked through the cabin checking seatbelts.
4
nouncountable
A small private room on a ship where someone sleeps.
Like a small bedroom, but on a ship.
She unpacked her bags in her cabin below deck.
Their cabin had two narrow beds and a small window.
Similarstateroom, berth, quarters
5
nouncountable
The closed-in inside part of a boat that makes a small room for sleeping.
Like a tiny bedroom built inside a boat.
They climbed down into the cabin to get out of the rain.
The little sailboat's cabin held just one bunk.
Note
6
nouncountable
A small closed-off room or space.
Like a small box-shaped room just big enough to stand in.
The guard sat in a tiny cabin by the gate.
They turned the shed into a cabin for storing tools.
Similarbooth, hut, cubicle, kiosk
Note
7
nouncountable
A part of a plane where all the seats are the same travel class.
Like the different price sections of seats at a stadium.
Passengers in the business cabin boarded first.
The front cabin has wider seats than the back.
Similarsection, class
Note
8
verbtransitive
To keep something within narrow limits.
Like putting a fence around something so it cannot spread out.
The judge tried to cabin the new rule to a few rare cases.
We need to cabin our spending to what we truly need.
Similarconfine, limit, restrict, constrain, circumscribe
Oppositeexpand, broaden, extend, widen
Note
9
verbtransitive
To put someone or something into a small, closed space.
Like shutting a hamster into a small cage.
The crew will cabin the passengers below deck during the storm.
They cabined the dog in a small crate for the trip.
Similarconfine, cram, pen, cage, coop
10
nounIndiacountable
A private office used by a professional such as a doctor or lawyer.
Like a small office room where one professional meets people.
The doctor called the next patient into her cabin.
He waited outside the lawyer's cabin for an hour.
Similaroffice, chamber, study
Note
11
nouncolloquialcountable
A small building beside a railroad where signals are controlled.
Like a little control room where a worker steers trains the right way.
The signalman watched the trains from a small cabin beside the tracks.
A cabin at the junction controlled which way each train went.
Similartower
Note

Less common meaning

12
verbobsoleteintransitive
To live or stay in a small hut or simple shelter.
Like camping in one small place for a while.
The shepherds cabin in the hills through the cold months.
We cabined by the river until the spring thaw came.
Note

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of cabin apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Old French cabane, from Medieval Latin capanna meaning "a cabin," coming into English as Middle English caban.