noun

• 1mass noun Pasteboard or stiff paper.

  as modifier ‘a cardboard box’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Most people will be aware that there is little demand for paper, cardboard, plastic and glass.’
  • ‘Swindon Council provided households with a box for cardboard, paper and other recyclables.’
  • ‘The duo have dispensed with plastic CD casings and fashioned their covers from stiff cardboard.’
  • ‘Think about the glass, plastic and cardboard packaging that goes in the bin and could be recycled.’
  • ‘We made mailboxes out of construction paper and cardboard and put them on our desks.’
  • ‘Again the council can provide boxes to store cardboard and plastic bottles awaiting disposal.’
  • ‘Last week I left several glass wine bottles in my green bin along with paper and cardboard.’
  • ‘He finally got a grip on the foreign object, which felt like paper or cardboard.’
  • ‘The ventilators are blocked, and roof tiles have caved in and have been replaced by paper and cardboard.’
  • ‘Oh, goodness but I'm fed up with trying to make serviceable postal boxes out of old cardboard.’
  • ‘Besides, the big cardboard box it came in was my only cabinet for a fair while.’
  • ‘As Michael packed tins of beans, soup and spaghetti into cardboard boxes he nervously looked around.’
  • ‘The main structure is made out of wood and cardboard and is covered in plasticine before being painted.’
  • ‘Foss Islands is the only place in York to take plastic and cardboard.’
  • ‘They produce all that plastic and cardboard; they ought to be actively responsible for getting rid of it.’
  • ‘Many houses are made of reed mats, plywood and plastic with cardboard filling the gaps.’
  • ‘I would sit and think about what picture I wanted to paint, look at my large piece of cardboard and my paints.’
  • ‘Others favoured a more traditional design using cardboard and green fabrics.’
  • ‘In the western town of Ghansi, hundreds live in shacks made of plastic and cardboard tied together.’
  • ‘Anyway, the new bike arrived this morning, all swathed in cardboard and plastic wadding.’

  Synonyms

  cardboard, pasteboard, board, stiff paper

• 2as modifier (of a character in a literary work) lacking depth and realism; artificial.

  ‘with its superficial, cardboard characters, the novel was typical of her work’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Mind you, no psychological sensitivity can really rescue these grimly cardboard characters.’
  • ‘The cardboard characters they were from the TV show couldn't really sustain a movie.’
  • ‘They were very very simple cardboard characters who mostly just have to glower, smoulder and say witty lines quietly.’
  • ‘The parade of cardboard characters with implausible motives makes for a less than satisfying read.’
  • ‘The clues fail to involve, or interest, and the characters are cardboard cutouts.’
  • ‘Holmes and Watson have become cardboard variations on a theme, rather than reinvented characters.’
  • ‘I'll have to wait and see if they get a better grasp on the characters or just leave them as cardboard cutouts.’
  • ‘He does not want to paint her as a cardboard cut-out villainess, and rightly so.’
  • ‘He was certainly no cardboard figure and no amount of hagiography has succeeded in making him a saint.’