a group of advisers ranking below the cabinet level, chosen by a chief executive usually from members of the various executive departments
adjective
2.
of or pertaining to a subcabinet
Word origin
[1950–55; sub- + cabinet]This word is first recorded in the period 1950–55. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Common Market, action painting, drip-dry, point-of-sale, speech recognitionsub- is a prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin (subject; subtract; subvert; subsidy). On this model, sub- is freely attached to elements of any origin and used with the meaning “under,” “below,”“beneath” (subalpine; substratum), “slightly,” “imperfectly,” “nearly” (subcolumnar; subtropical), “secondary,” “subordinate” (subcommittee; subplot)