A cupboard is a type of storage cabinet, often made of wood, used indoors to store household objects such as food, crockery, textiles and liquor, and protect them from dust and dirt. The term cupboard was originally used to describe an open-shelved side table for displaying plates, cups and saucers. These open cupboards typically had between one and three display tiers, and at the time, a drawer or multiple drawers fitted to them. The word cupboard gradually came to mean a closed piece of furniture. The word cupboard is also frequently used in British English to denote what Americans would call a closet.