▪ I. larder, n.1
(ˈlɑːdə(r))
Forms: 4, 7 lardere, 5, 7 lardre, 5 lardar, -yr(e, -ure, laardere, lardder, larddre, (6 lawder), 7 Sc. lairder, 4— larder.
[a. OF. lardier, AF. larder:—med.L. lardārium, f. lardum lard n. Cf. OF. lardoir, lardouer ‘garde-manger’.]
1. a. A room or closet in which meat (? orig. bacon) and other provisions are stored.
| c 1305 St. Kenelm 236 in E.E.P. (1862) 54 Þeȝ his larder were neȝ ido & his somer lese lene. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 28 Alle Northwales he set to treuage hie. Tuenti pounde of gold be ȝere.. & þer to fyue hundreth kie ilk ȝere to his lardere. c 1340 Cursor M. 4688 (Trin.) Moo þen a þousande seleres Filled he wiþ wynes..And larderes [Gött. lardineris] wiþ salt flesshe. 1390–1 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 60 Pro ligno et clauis per ipsum emptis ibidem pro la lardre. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 288/1 Laardere, lardarium. 1468–9 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 92, 1 axe pro le lardar. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII c. 12 §13 The serieant of the larder for the time being of the same household. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 105 Espying hir time when and how she may come to the Lawder or Vittailehouse. 1613 Shakes. Hen VIII, v. iv. 5 Good M. Porter I belong to th' Larder. 1644 D. Hume Hist. Douglas 28 This Cellar is called yet the Douglas Lairder [cf. lardiner 1. 1375]. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 378 The hen gratifies her desires in hatching and breeding up chickens for the larder. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 615 Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) III. xx. 266 The larders of Savona were filled with the choicest game. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lxx. 311 The whole repast bespoke the exhausted larder peculiar to the end of the week. 1877 Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 50 Utterly unmindful of the probable condition of the larder at home. |
b. transf. and fig. Something serving as a storehouse.
| 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. Ded. 34 Forth, Taw, Cluyd, Tems, Severne, Humber, Trent, And foure great Seas, your Larders be for Lent. 1864 J. S. Harford Recoll. W. Wilberforce 195 It [the antediluvian mammoth] had only been hanging in Nature's larder for the last five thousand years. 1877 Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. viii. 220 His table became the larder and patrimony of the poor. |
c. The collection of prey formed by a butcher-bird or shrike.
| 1919 H. F. Witherby Pract. Handbk. Brit. Birds (1920) I. 277 J. H. Gurnsey also records a shrew impaled in a ‘larder’ and Oldham a young bank-vole. 1964 A. L. Thomson New Dict. Birds 733/1 Many species [of shrike] have the habit of impaling their prey on thorns..or of hanging it from the fork of a branch... This provision of a ‘larder’ is responsible for the English popular name ‘butcher bird’. |
† 2. fig. Chiefly in phr. to make larder of: to turn into meat for the larder; to bring to the slaughter-house, hence, to slaughter; to larder, to the slaughter-house. Also occas. simply = slaughter. Obs.
| a 1330 Otuel 1129 Al the Kinges ost..maden a foul larder. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxxxii. 10 Zebee, that is, swilke þat þe deuyl makis his lardere of. c 1380 Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 251 Prelatis courtis þat ben dennys of þeues & larderis of helle. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love ii. xiv. (Skeat) l. 13 Thus drawen was this innocente, as an oxe to the larder. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 124 Than [in November] is the larder of the swine. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 7228 Of oon he hoped larder to make. c 1450 Merlin 337 The knyghtes of the rounde table made soche lardure thourgh the felde as it hadde ben shepe strangeled with wolves. |
3. attrib. and Comb.: larder beetle, an insect which devours stored animal foods, Dermestes lardarius (Cent. Dict.); larder bird = butcher-bird; larder-fly, ? = larder beetle; † larder-house = sense 1; † larder-silver, some kind of manorial dues (cf. larding money).
| 1895 J. H. & A. Comstock Man. Study Insects xxi. 539 The *Larder Beetle, Dermestes lardarius..is the most common of the larger members of this family. 1942 E. O. Essig College Entomol. xxxii. 559 Small convex scaly beetles usually feeding on dead or dry animal matter. (Skin or Larder Beetles.) Dermestidæ. 1974 Times 16 Apr. 12/7 The larder beetle has been left on the shelf, but a related species..is piling up its numbers. |
| 1948 Brit. Birds XLI. 200 Because of the habit of pinning up spare food on thorns the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius c. collurio) was far better known in Essex when I lived there, as the *Larder Bird. |
| 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 872/2 In the maggot of the *larder-flies..the mouth is formed..differently. |
| 1390–1 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 24 Duobus valettis pro mundacione le *larderhous, vj d. 1460–1 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 90 Pro le pavyng in le larderhouse. c 1540 Boorde The boke for to Lerne B j b, The celler, the kytchyn, the larderhowse with al other howses of offices. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 45 This similitude is not rude, nor borowed of the larder house. |
| 1486–7 Bailiff's MS. Acc. Dunster Boro'., De iiijs vj{supd} de proficuis cujusdam consuetudinis vocati *Larder sylver. |
Hence ˈlarderless a., without a larder.
| 1852 Ford in Q. Rev. Mar. 436 The barren larderless venta..without shelter or food for man or beast. |
▪ II. larder, n.2
[f. lard v. + -er1.]
One who lards.
| 1598 Florio, Lardatore, a larder, one that lardes meate. |
▪ III. ˈlarder, v. rare.
[f. larder n.1]
trans. To store up as in a larder.
| 1904 Rider Haggard Gardener's Year (1905) July 251 The first wasp which came into being must have paralysed caterpillars and lardered them in key-holes. 1948 Brit. Birds XLI. 200 The male bird..is much more given to lardering than the hen. |