Main Difference
The main difference between Cupboard and Closet is that the Cupboard is a closed or open-shelved side table for displaying dishware, more specifically plates, cups and saucers and A closet is an enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging or storing clothes.
Cupboard
The term cupboard was originally used to describe an open-shelved side table for displaying dishware, more specifically plates, cups and saucers. These open cupboards typically had between one and three display tiers, and at the time, a drawer or multiple drawers fitted to them. The word cupboard gradually came to mean a closed piece of furniture.
The word cupboard is also frequently used in British English to denote what North Americans would call a closet.
Closet
A closet (especially in North American usage) is an enclosed space used for storage, particularly that of clothes. “Fitted closet” are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closets are often built under stairs, thereby using awkward space that would otherwise go unused. A “walk-in closet” is a typically a very small windowless room attached to a bedroom, used for clothes storage.
A piece of furniture such as a cabinet or chest of drawers serves the same function of storage, but is not a closet. A closet always has space for hanging, whereas a cupboard may consist only of shelves for folded garments. The word “wardrobe” can refer to a free-standing piece of furniture (also known as an armoire), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a wardrobe can also be a “large cupboard or cabinet for storing clothes or other linen”, including “built-in wardrobe, fitted wardrobe, walk-in wardrobe, etc.”
Cupboard (noun)
A used to buffet.
Cupboard (noun)
Things displayed on a sideboard; dishware, particularly valuable plate.
Cupboard (noun)
A storing cookware, dishware, or food; similar cabinets or closets used for storing other items.
“Put the cups back into the cupboard.”
Cupboard (noun)
Things stored in a cupboard; particularly food.
Cupboard (verb)
To collect, as into a cupboard; to hoard. from 16th century.
Closet (noun)
Any private area, particularly bowers in the open air.
Closet (noun)
Any private or inner room, particularly:
Closet (noun)
A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
Closet (noun)
A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
Closet (noun)
A place of (usually fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
Closet (noun)
A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
Closet (noun)
A private cabinet, particularly:
Closet (noun)
The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch.
Closet (noun)
One used to store valuables.
Closet (noun)
One used to store curiosities.
Closet (noun)
One used to store food or other household supplies: a cupboard.
Closet (noun)
Any small room or side-room, particularly:
Closet (noun)
A secret or hiding place, particularly the hiding place in English idioms such as in the closet and skeleton in the closet.
“The closet can be a scary place for a gay teenager.”
“He’s so far in the closet, he can w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|see Narnia.”
Closet (noun)
One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.
Closet (noun)
An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
Closet (noun)
A sewer.
Closet (adjective)
Private.
Closet (adjective)
Secret, especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet; closeted.
“He’s a closet case.”
Closet (verb)
To shut away for private discussion.
“The ambassador has been closeted with the prime minister all afternoon. We’re all worried what will be announced when they exit.”
Closet (verb)
To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
Closet (verb)
To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.
Closet (noun)
a tall cupboard or wardrobe with a door, used for storage
“he has a closet full of designer suits”
Closet (noun)
a small room, especially one used for storing things or for private study.
Closet (noun)
short for water closet
Closet (noun)
used to refer to a state of secrecy or concealment, especially about one’s homosexuality
“she tries to have a relationship with another woman while remaining in the closet”
“his brother’s decision to come out of the closet”
Closet (adjective)
secret; covert
“a closet smoker”
Closet (verb)
shut (someone) away, especially in private conference or study
“he returned home and closeted himself in his room”
“he was closeted with the king”