A larder is a cool, dark room or large cupboard where people store food to keep it fresh. Before refrigerators were invented, families needed a special place to preserve meat, cheese, butter, and other foods that would spoil quickly in warm temperatures. The larder was usually on the north side of a house (where it stayed coolest) and had thick walls and shelves for storing provisions.

In medieval castles and manor houses, the larder was an important room managed carefully by household staff. A well-stocked larder meant a family could survive the winter or prepare for unexpected guests.

Today, most homes use refrigerators instead, but some people still call their kitchen pantry a larder, especially in Britain. When you read old novels about large country estates, the larder is where the cook goes to fetch ingredients for dinner. If someone says their larder is bare, they mean they're running low on food.