Main Difference
The main difference between Wardrobe and Cupboard is that the Wardrobe is a storage cabinet and Cupboard is a closed or open-shelved side table for displaying dishware, more specifically plates, cups and saucers.
Wardrobe
A wardrobe is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with closets and lockers, the drawer being a comparatively modern invention. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, evolved slowly.
Throughout the chronological changes in the form of the enclosure, it more or less retained its preset function as a place to retain a king’s robe. The word has gained coinage over successive generations as an independent store for among others, preserving precious items for a ruler like gold, well highlighted in King Edward I’s times. It is also a simple patio where clothes are hung from metal bars or tucked inside utility racks running from up to down. The modern wardrobe differs in one respect from the historical one for its triple partitioning: there are two linear compartments on either side with shelves as well as a middle space made up of hanging pegs and drawers, the latter being a latter-day addition, besides a clothes’ press in the higher central space on level with a person’s chest.
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.
Wardrobe (noun)
A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.
Wardrobe (noun)
A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes.
Wardrobe (noun)
The building housing such a department.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any closet used for storing anything.
Wardrobe (noun)
A room for keeping costumes and other property safe at a theater; a prop room.
Wardrobe (noun)
The department of a theater, movie studio, etc which purchases, keeps, and cares for costumes; its staff; its room(s) or building(s).
Wardrobe (noun)
A movable cupboard or cabinet designed for storing clothes, particularly as a large piece of bedroom furniture.
Wardrobe (noun)
A tall built-in cupboard or closet for storing clothes, often including a rail for coat-hangers, and usually located in a bedroom.
Wardrobe (noun)
Anything that similarly stores or houses something.
Wardrobe (noun)
The contents of a wardrobe: an individual’s entire collection of clothing.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any collection of clothing.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any collection of anything.
Wardrobe (noun)
A private chamber, particularly one used for sleeping or urinating and defecating.
Wardrobe (noun)
Badger feces, particularly used in tracking game.
Wardrobe (verb)
To act as a wardrobe department, to provide clothing or sets of clothes.
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.