Dictionary
Find
in
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Translations

Click to move up the list of words
cabbage tree
cabbagetown
cabbageworm
Cabbala
cabby
caber
cabergoline
Cabernet Sauvignon
cabin
cabin boy
cabin class
cabin crew
cabin cruiser
cabin fever
Cabinda
cabinet
cabinet minister
Click to move down the list of words
Print Preview
See pronunciation key
Search for "cabin" in all of MSN Encarta
E-mail this entry
Blog about this entry on MSN Spaces
Download the MSN Encarta Right-Click Dictionary

cabin

cab·in [ kábbin ]


noun  (plural cab·ins)
Definition:
 
1. buildings wooden hut: a small simple house, especially one made of wood in forest or mountain areas

2. travel small room on ship: a small room on a boat or ship, where people live or sleep

3. nautical shelter on boat: a covered or enclosed compartment that houses the wheel on a boat or yacht, used for shelter in bad weather and often as a living space

4. aviation airplane interior: the part of a passenger airplane where the passengers sit, or the part of a cargo airplane where the cargo is carried

5. aerospace crew quarters on spacecraft: the part of a spacecraft where the crew work, live, or sleep

6. navy room on ship: the commanding officer's room on a warship



transitive and intransitive verb  (past and past participle cab·ined, present participle cab·in·ing, 3rd person present singular cab·ins)
Definition:
 
keep somebody confined: to confine somebody in a small enclosed space, or live confined in this way ( literary ) ( usually passive )

[14th century. Via Old French cabane< late Latin capanna "hut"]

Cultural Note

Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Set in the American South, it is the story of an enslaved African American man, Uncle Tom, who is sold by his kindly owners and eventually dies at the hands of a vicious new master named Simon Legree. Such was this abolitionist novel's influence that it was described as one of the causes of the Civil War.

Also on Encarta
Englishtown: Learn English online
Our Partners
Encarta Message Boards (© Rubberball/Jupiterimages)
MSN Shopping
Upgrade your Encarta experience
Encarta RSS Feeds
© 2008 Microsoft