cardboard

1 of 2

noun

card·​board ˈkärd-ˌbȯrd How to pronounce cardboard (audio)
: a material made from cellulose fiber (such as wood pulp) like paper but usually thicker
cardboardy adjective

cardboard

2 of 2

adjective

1
: made of or as if of cardboard
2
: unreal, stereotyped
a play with cardboard characters

Examples of cardboard in a Sentence

Noun Cover the windows with cardboard. Adjective The play had cardboard characters.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
This can be made with simple materials like a cardboard box or tube with a small pinhole on one end and a translucent screen on the other. The Arizona Republic, 8 Mar. 2024 On Tuesday, inspectors noted violations including unapproved cardboard boxes being used to store food in the refrigerator. Jacqueline Pinedo, Sacramento Bee, 8 Mar. 2024 The message was written on a cardboard box she was seen holding in a 7-Eleven parking lot in Los Angeles. Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 7 Mar. 2024 The pallets were loaded with cardboard boxes containing rice, flour, sugar, tea and milk, along with sanitary napkins. Jane Arraf, NPR, 1 Mar. 2024 An unopened cardboard box filled with packs of hockey cards from 1979-1980 sold for a whopping $3.72 million at auction on Sunday, according to Heritage Auctions. Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 26 Feb. 2024 Its paper-tape cardboard boxes are wonderfully easy to rip apart for recycling, its paper mailers are promising (though missing firm commitment), and its gift bags are far too good to toss in the trash. Sean Hollister, The Verge, 21 Feb. 2024 Tiny cardboard cherry blossoms poke out of perfectly round, pale pink scoops of ice cream. Zoe Glasser, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024 The film smartly avoids making the character a cardboard saint, thanks to such smart dialogue as when Cabrini is ordered back to Italy by the Church at one point. Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Feb. 2024
Adjective
One older trick to protect young stems is fitting the cardboard portion of a toilet paper roll around the stem as a barrier. Tom MacCubbin, Orlando Sentinel, 21 Jan. 2023 Then, boxes were shallow cardboard squares with flaps to lock them into place. Saahil Desai, The Atlantic, 13 Jan. 2023 Last Halloween, two doors down, a law librarian named Patty had lain in a cardboard coffin on her porch, dressed as Dracula, and jump-scared even the two-year-old next door, who leaped about ten feet into her brother’s arms. Matthew Klam, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2022 On November 22, the Dollface star shared a video on Instagram of what looked to be a piece of paper bustling through the wind of a cardboard city. Adrianna Freedman, Good Housekeeping, 3 Dec. 2022 Secure a cool moon and clouds kit with balloons or glittery cardboard cloud cutouts to impress your peers. Seventeen.com Editors, Seventeen, 1 Dec. 2022 The facility was evacuated after a cardboard compactor caught fire last week, two days after the JFK8 fire, which was similar. Karen Weise, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2022 In the shadows for more than a half century, Mothman is now everywhere — in a stainless steel statue near downtown, in graffiti on the walls of the public bathrooms, in a cardboard frame with a face cutout so tourists can take photos. Emma Platoff, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Nov. 2022 The two sat at a table in front of a black curtain and a cardboard logo for the channel. Chicago Tribune, 27 Oct. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cardboard.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1789, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1819, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of cardboard was in 1789

Dictionary Entries Near cardboard

Cite this Entry

“Cardboard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cardboard. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

cardboard

noun
card·​board
ˈkärd-ˌbō(ə)rd,
-ˌbȯ(ə)rd
: a material made from cellulose fiber (as wood pulp) like paper but usually thicker
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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