livery cupboard

noun

1. a cupboard with pierced doors, formerly used as a storage place for food.

Word History and Origins

Origin of livery cupboard¹

First recorded in 1565–75

Example Sentences

The livery cupboard was often small enough to stand upon a sideboard or cabinet, and had an open front with a series of turned balusters.

From Project Gutenberg

The livery cupboard appears usually to have been placed in bedrooms, so that a supply of food and drink was readily available when a very long interval separated the last meal of the evening from the first in the morning.

From Project Gutenberg

The livery cupboard, similar in its uses, seldom had an enclosed portion.

From Project Gutenberg

Dr. Lyon gives these names of cupboards found in New England: Cupboard, small cupboard, great cupboard, court cupboard, livery cupboard, side cupboard, hanging cupboard, sideboard cupboard, and cupboard with drawers.

From Project Gutenberg

Our collectors, too, were at this time appreciating the Oriental china, both blue and white, and colored, which had a good market in Holland, so that with the excellent silversmith's work then obtainable, it was possible in the time of William and Mary to arrange a room with more artistic effect than at an earlier period, when the tapestry and panelling of the walls, a table, the livery cupboard previously described, and some three or four chairs, had formed almost the whole furniture of reception rooms.

From Project Gutenberg