| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈtea-ˌtable, n.
[f. tea n. 4 + table n. 6.]
1. A table at which tea is taken, or on which tea-things are placed for a meal.
a. As a special piece of furniture, usually small and of a light and elegant make.
In quot. 1804, a table for the sale of tea and refreshments.
1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3891/3 Lackered Tea-Tables. 1740C'tess of Hertford Corr. (1806) II. 12 The Duchess of Dorset was presented with..a tea-table with a gold tea-canister, kettle and lamp. 1804Naval Chron. XII. 307, I fell foul of a..woman's tea-table, at the corner of a street, and had like to have thrown the..tea-things all about. 1898G. B. Shaw Plays II. You never can tell 274 The bamboo tea table, with folding shelves.
b. A table spread for tea, or as the place of a social gathering for tea and conversation.
1688Shadwell Sqr. Alsatia Epil. 37 Here no Chit chat, here no Tea Tables are. 1700Congreve Way of World iv. v, To the Dominion of the Tea-table I submit..but..I banish all Auxiliaries to the Tea-table, as Orange-brandy, all Aniseed [etc.]. 1792A. Murphy Ess. Johnson 88 During the whole time he presided at his tea-table. 1854Mrs. Gaskell North & S. x, She stood by the tea-table..as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups.
2. transf. The company assembled at tea.
1712Addison Spect. No. 536 ⁋1 The..publication of it would..oblige..a whole tea-table of my friends. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. i. 19 Explaining to the tea-table this evening's outfit.
3. attrib. (chiefly in reference to social gatherings: see 1 b).
1700Congreve Way of World iv. v, Restrain yourself to..simple Tea-table Drinks, as Tea, Chocolate, and Coffee. As likewise to genuine and authorised Tea-table Talk—Such as mending of Fashions, spoiling Reputations, railing at absent Friends. 1724Ramsay (title) The Tea-table Miscellany. 1779(title) Tea-Table Dialogues, between a Governess and Miss Sensible. 1852H. Spencer Use & Beauty in Ess. (1858) 387 While ghost-stories..enliven tea-table conversation.
Hence (humorous nonce-wds.) † teataˈbellically adv., at the tea-table, in familiar conversation at tea; tea-ˈtabular a., pertaining to the tea-table.
1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 475 The vast Pacific Ocean, commonly, yea, vulgarly, not to say, news-paperically, nor yet, teatabellically,..called..the South-sea. 1855Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1895) I. 125 Torpid, indoor, tea-tabular felicity.
▪ II. ˈtea-table, v.
[f. the n.]
trans. In literature, to treat a dramatic event in a trivial or casual way. Hence ˈtea-tabling vbl. n.
1938C. Isherwood Lions & Shadows iv. 175 The accident was to be in the best Forster tradition, ‘tea-tabled’, slightly absurd. Ibid. vi. 258 The murder was cut—‘tea-tabled’ down to an indecisive, undignified scuffle; and the ending was an apotheosis of the Tea-Table, a decrescendo of anti-climaxes. 1962Times Lit. Suppl. 22 June 460/4 Certain critics have made far too much of Mr. Forster's ‘tea-tabling’ and of his casual sudden deaths. 1977Ibid. 28 Jan. 97/2 Christina Rossetti's oblique treatment of detail is an early case of what Isherwood, discussing Forster in Lions and Shadows, calls ‘tea-tabling’, the novel's lyrical domestication of disaster. |