| 释义 |
dumb-waiter
[see dumb a. 8.]
1. An article of dining-room furniture, intended to dispense with the services of a waiter at table.
In its typical form, an upright pole bearing one or more revolving trays or shelves. On these are placed dishes and other table requisites, which can thus readily be got at as required. Other simpler forms have also been used.
1749J. Cleland Mem. Woman Pleasure I. 156 A bottle of Burgundy, with the other necessaries, were set on a dumb-waiter. 1755Mem. Capt. P. Drake II. iii. 49 As soon as Supper was over, Glasses and a Bottle of Burgundy with a Flask of Champaign, was laid on the Table, with a Supply of those Wines on a Dumb-Waiter. 1779Boswell in Fitzgerald Life (1891) 265 We dined in all the elegance of two courses and a dessert, with dumb waiters. 1824Scott Let. to Ld. Montagu 14 Apr. in Lockhart. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xxvi, A capacious dumb-waiter, with a variety of bottles and decanters on it. 1884Shorthouse Schoolmaster Mark ii. vii, Dumb waiters..were placed by the table's side, and the servants left the room.
2. ‘A movable frame, by which dishes, etc. are passed from one room or story of a house to another.’ (Webster, 1864.) orig. U.S.[‘So called in my father's house.’ F. Hall.] 1847Webster 372/2 When the kitchen is in the basement, the dumb-waiter is made to rise and fall by means of pulleys and weights. 1876J. S. Ingram Centenn. Exposition iii. 69 The general kitchen whence the food is distributed throughout the upper stories by means of dumb waiters. 1903A. H. Lewis Boss vi. 69 There's a dumb waiter from the bar to send up beer and smokes. 1960H. Pinter Dumb Waiter 16 Disclosed is a serving-hatch, a ‘dumb waiter’. A wide box is held by pulleys. |