cubbyhole
noun
- very small and confined room or closet
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkʌbiˌhoʊl/
noun
Etymology: From cubby + hole.
- A small, snug room which may be used as a place of privacy, or a safe place for children
“To reach the courtroom, on the second floor, one passed sundry sunless county cubbyholes: the tax assessor, the tax collector, the county clerk, the county solicitor, the circuit clerk, the judge of probate lived in cool dim hutches that smelled of decaying record books mingled with old damp cement and stale urine.”
- A small compartment; a pigeonhole
- A glove compartment
verb
Etymology: From cubby + hole.
- To restrict, limit or narrowly define; to pigeonhole.
“Rivera: The world has changed. It is no longer cubbyholed. I do not think — Friendly: What do you mean cubbyholed? Rivera: I do not think the definition of journalist is as narrowly construed these days as perhaps it was once.”
“A true Renaissance man, Walcott has consistently resisted being cubbyholed. He has rejected neither his Caribbean heritage nor his British education.”