Cabinet is the name of the group of ministers or senior politicians who form the collective executive power of a government. The Cabinet is the top political leadership in countries with parliamentary systems, including some of the most developed democracies in the world (such as Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) and the United Kingdom. In countries with presidential systems, the president takes advice from the Cabinet on matters within the executive branch. Cabinet members are usually strongly subordinate to the head of government, who can dismiss them at will and can move them (“demot”) to different portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle, although in practice the latter is very rare. Cabinet members are typically appointed by the president, and in some cases a segment of the legislature must confirm their appointments.
The term cabinet may also be used to refer to a meeting of an official body, and it is in this sense that the word is most often employed in the United States. However, it is also a common verb meaning to examine something, and this can be applied to many different types of activities: someone putting together furniture might review the directions; a chef might carefully go over a recipe; and a writer will likely look over their work for mistakes and spelling errors.
A cabinet can be either face frame or frameless construction. Face-frame cabinets have a supporting frame attached to the front of the cabinet box, and cabinet doors attach directly to this frame. Frameless cabinets, on the other hand, have no such support and the cabinet doors are hung on hinges that are mounted to the sides of the box.