| 释义 |
▪ I. coffee, n.|ˈkɒfɪ|
Forms: α. (6 caoua, chaoua, 7 cahve, coava, coave, cahu, coho, kauhi, kahue, cauwa); β. 7 coffa, caffa, capha; γ. 7 caphe, cauphe, cophie, coffi(e, coffey, coffea, coffy, 7–8 coffe, cophee, caufee, 7– coffee.
[ad. Arab. qahwah, in Turkish pronounced kahveh, the name of the infusion or beverage; said by Arab lexicographers to have originally meant ‘wine’ or some kind of wine, and to be a derivative of a vb.-root qahiya ‘to have no appetite.’ Some have conjectured that it is a foreign, perh. African, word disguised, and have thought it connected with the name of Kaffa in the south Abyssinian highlands, where the plant appears to be native. But of this there is no evidence, and the name qahwah is not given to the berry or plant, which is called bunn, the native name in Shoa being būn.
The European langs. generally appear to have got the name from Turkish kahveh, about 1600, perh. through It. caffè; cf. F., Sp., Pg. café, Ger. kaffee, Da., Sw. kaffe. The Eng. coffee, Du. koffie, earlier Ger. coffee, koffee, Russ. kophe, kopheĭ, have o, app. representing earlier au from ahw or ahv.]
1. a. A drink made by infusion or decoction from the seeds of a shrub (see 3), roasted and ground or (in the East) pounded; extensively used as a beverage, and acting as a moderate stimulant.
black coffee: strong coffee served without milk or cream (F. café noir).
(α) Early foreign forms:
1598Linschoten's Trav. 46 (Note of Paludanus) The Turkes holde almost the same manner of drinking of their Chaoua, which they make of a certaine fruit..by the Egyptians called Bon or Ban. 1653Greaves Seraglio 190 Some Cahve house..[note, where they drink Cahve]. 1659(title), The Nature of the drink Kauhi, or Coffee, and the Berry of which it is made, Described by an Arabian Physitian, Oxford. 1665Havers Sir T. Roe's Voy. E. Ind. (Socotoru Isl.), For drink water and cahu, black liquor, drank as hot as could be endured. 1702W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant xxi. 94 The most usual Liquor..Kahue, which we call Coffee.
(β) coffa, caffa, capha.
1603–30Capt. Smith Trav. & Adv. 25 Their [Turkes'] best drinke is Coffa of a graine they call Coava. 1631R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature ix. 68 Let them have Chyan from Greece, Caffa from Turkey. 1631E. Jorden Nat. Bathes xvi. (1669) 151 In the East-Indies and in Turkey..they have a drink called Capha, sold ordinarily in Taverns, and drunk hot. 1632Lithgow Trav. iv. 151 A Cup of Coffa.
(γ) cauphe, cophie, cophee, coffe, coffee, etc.
1601W. Parry Sherley's Trav. 10 A certain Liquor which they call Coffe..which will soon intoxicate the brain. 1636Sir H. Blount Voy. Levant (1637) 42 One brought a Porcelane dish of Cauphe. 1636Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 11 There came in my time [i.e. 1636] to the College, one Nathaniel Conopios, out of Greece..He was the first I ever saw drink coffee; which custom came not into England till thirty years after. 1664― Sylva 34 Which might yet be drank daily as our Cophee is. 1665G. Harvey Advice agst. Plague xii. 12 Coffee is recommended against the Contagion. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 658 He made the drink for his own use called Coffey..being the first..that was ever drank in Oxon. 1712–4Pope Rape Lock iii. 117 Coffee (which makes the politician wise, And see through all things with his half-shut eyes). 1796J. Owen Trav. Europe II. 529 Black coffee, as it is called, or coffee without milk, is the general drink. 1824Byron Juan xvi. ci, The evening also waned—and coffee came. 1867Baker Nile Tribut. ix. 220, I..sat down..to good curry and rice, and a cup of black coffee.
b. A light repast at which coffee is taken (cf. tea); or a final course at dinner consisting of coffee. Also, (a, the) coffee, a cupful of coffee.
1774P. V. Fithian Jrnl. Virginia 21 July (1900) I. 213 Ben & I..rode to..the Corn-field... We returned to Coffee. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister Street iii. i. 516 Michael forgave him immediately and promised to come to coffee. 1920‘K. Mansfield’ Bliss 163 But I won't have a cup of tea. No, I'll have a coffee. 1938E. Bowen Death of Heart iii. vi. 431 Wait till the coffees come. 1959Woman's Own 6 June 12/1 If you're not in a hurry will you let me buy you a coffee?
c. A shade or tint of the colour of coffee (cf. 5 a below).
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art. II. 553 Coffee, damascene, and similar shades. 1817W. Tucker Family Dyer & Scourer iii. 83 For chocolate, coffee, &c. yellow is omitted. 1923Daily Mail 31 July 2/5 (Advt.), In Jade, Lemon, Electric, Coffee, Purple. 1970Honey June 127/2 A suit... In cerise/white..turquoise/yellow; coffee/pink.
2. The seeds or ‘berries’ (collectively), either raw or roasted; or the powder made by grinding the roasted seeds, from which the drink is made.
1626Bacon Sylva §738 This berry Coffa..of which the Turks are great takers. 1685J. Chamberlayne Coffee, Tea, & Choc. 11 Coffee is a Berry which only grows in the desert of Arabia. 1709Brit. Apollo II. No. 19. 4/2 Turkey Coffee at 6s. 4d. per pound. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 167 Roasting coffee improves its flavour.
3. The tree or shrub from which coffee is obtained; a species of Coffea, chiefly C. arabica, a native of Abyssinia and Arabia, but now extensively cultivated throughout the tropics. It bears fragrant white flowers like those of jessamine, succeeded by red fleshy berries resembling small cherries, each containing two seeds (coffee-beans).
1623Bacon Hist. Vitæ & Mortis Wks. II. 163 Turcae habent etiam in usu herbae genus quam vocant Caphe [transl. (1651) 29 The Turkes use a kind of Herb, which they call Caphe]. 1757Dyer Fleece i. 244 Caufee wild or thea, Nutmeg or cinnamon. 1857Livingstone Trav. xx. 399 The clayey soil formed by the disintegration of the mica schist and trap is the favourite soil for the coffee. 1859Tennent Ceylon II. vii. vii. 251 A plantation of coffee is at every season an object of beauty and interest.
4. a. The name has been commercially applied to various substances or preparations used as imitations of coffee, or substitutes for it, as dandelion coffee. b. Swedish coffee: the seeds of Astragalus bæticus. wild coffee: a West Indian name of Faramea odoratissima (Miller Plant Names).
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. General combinations, as coffee-bush, coffee-crop, coffee-drink, coffee-drinking, † coffee-farthing, coffee-husbandry, coffee-imbibing, coffee-lees, † coffee-penny, coffee-plant, coffee-plantation, coffee-planting, coffee-shop, coffee-shrub, coffee things, coffee-time, coffee-urn; coffee-brown, coffee-coloured, coffee-faced, coffee-tinted adjs; also quasi-adj. with the meaning ‘coffee-coloured’, as coffee morocco.
1857C. Kingsley Two Years Ago III. iii. 112 The roar of Ogwen, as he swirled and bubbled down, rich *coffee-brown from last night's rain. 1934Burlington Mag. Aug. 57/1 Dark, opaque, coffee-brown tints.
1859Tennent Ceylon vii. vi. (L.), The belief that a *coffee-bush..would continue..to bear crops without manure.
1695Motteux St. Olon's Morocco 151 He was muffl'd up to the Eyes in a *Coffee-colour'd Handkerchief. 1761Pulteney in Phil. Trans. LII. 346 A thin coffee-coloured liquor. 1883A. Dobson Old World Idylls, Dead Let. i. vii, Coffee-coloured laces.
1859Tennent Ceylon viii. vi. (L.), The entire *coffee crop of Ceylon.
1659Howell in N. & Q. Ser. i. (1850) I. 315/1 This *Coffee-drink hath caused a great sobriety among all nations.
1885C. M. Yonge Nuttie's Father ii. xviii. 211 There was a general assembly and *coffee-drinking in the verandah.
a1845Barham Ingol. Leg., House-Warming, The flame-colour'd Belle, and her *coffee-faced Beau!
1676Marvell Mr. Smirke 4 They had set up this Cock, and would have been content..to have ventur'd their *Coffee-Farthings, yea their Easter-Pence by advance, to have a fling at him.
1837Dickens Pickw. ii, The operation of shaving, dressing and *coffee-imbibing.
a1845Barham Ingol. Leg., Lay St. Cuthbert, Dashed in his face a whole cup of hot *coffee-lees.
1900Westm. Gaz. 13 June 4/3 Armchairs, upholstered in ‘*coffee’ morocco.
1673R. Head Canting Acad. 97 He did..exercise his hand with the Dice, either for naughty halfpence, or *Coffee⁓pence.
1859Tennent Ceylon (ed. 2) II. 226 The *coffee plant..which is a native of Africa, was known at Yemen at an early period.
1732Cal. State Papers, Amer. & W. Indies 19 Jan. (1939) 20 There is no reason to doubt but that great numbers of *coffee plantations would be immediately begun upon. 1861Trollope Tales of all Countries ser. i. 121 Very many of the estates..had been..abandoned, as was the case with his own coffee plantation. 1866Treas. Bot. 311 A Javanese Coffee-plantation.
1859Tennent Ceylon viii. vi. (L.), The healthy condition in which *coffee-planting appears at the present day in Ceylon.
1884C. Dickens Dict. Lond. 84/1 Some few *coffee public-houses..were opened.
1866Treas. Bot. 310 The *Coffee shrub is cultivated throughout the tropics.
1909H. G. Wells Ann Veronica v. 95 The figure of her aunt..behind the *coffee things. 1964‘J. Welcome’ Hard to Handle vi. 70 On the table..was a tray with coffee things.
1917Conrad Shadow-Line v. 168 Occasionally the second mate would..relieve me at early *coffee time. 1947‘N. Blake’ Minute for Murder ii. 35 He..asked me to pop in at coffee-time.
1899Daily News 28 Jan. 6/4 *Coffee-tinted chiffon.
1809Jane Austen Let. 10 Jan. (1952) 247, I think she is quite right to work a rug for Uncle John's *coffee urn. 1833Brewster Nat. Magic xiii. 328 The inhabitants boil the water in their coffee-urns.
b. Special combinations: coffee and (pl. coffee and, coffee ands) U.S. slang, coffee and doughnut(s) (or a roll, etc.); coffee bar, barrow, a bar or barrow at which coffee is sold as a beverage; coffee-bean, the seed of the coffee-plant; also U.S., the Kentucky coffee-tree; coffee-berry, the fruit of the coffee-plant also, loosely, the seed, and U.S., the Kentucky coffee-tree; coffee-biggin (see biggin2); coffee-bird, a kind of bullfinch (Pyrrhula violacea) found in Jamaica, which builds its nest in coffee-trees; coffee-blight, a microscopic fungus destructive to coffee-plantations; coffee-borer, a name given to species of boring-beetles which infest the coffee-plant; coffee-break, the interval, usually mid-morning, in an office, etc., when coffee is drunk; coffee-bug, an insect (Lecania coffeæ) of the family Coccidæ, very destructive to coffee-plants; coffee cake, (a) in the U.S., a breakfast bread of yeast dough enriched with eggs, butter, and sugar, baked in a sheet topped with streusel [etc.]..and glazed with melted sugar; also, a dark fruited raised bread (Webster 1961); (b) a cake with coffee flavouring; coffee coat = coffee jacket; coffee cooler U.S. slang, a contemptuous name applied to an idler, a shirker; coffee cream, (a) a cold custard dessert flavoured with coffee; (b) a sugar cream fondant flavoured with coffee essence, sometimes coated with chocolate; also attrib.; (c) cream suitable for use in coffee; coffee-cup, a cup from which coffee is drunk, usually larger than a tea-cup; now usually smaller than a tea-cup; coffee disease = coffee-leaf disease; † coffee-dish, a cup or other vessel for coffee; coffee essence [essence n. 9], a concentrated extract of coffee; coffee-grounds n. pl., the granular sediment remaining in coffee after infusion; coffee-ground vomit, a dark-coloured vomit containing blood altered by exposure to the gastric secretions; coffee-huller, ‘a machine to remove the husk which covers the coffee-grains’ (Knight Dict. Mech.); coffee jacket, a jacket worn by women when taking coffee (cf. tea-jacket, tea n. 9 c); coffee-klatsch U.S. [partial tr. G. kaffeeklatsch], a coffee-party; coffee-leaf disease, a disease affecting the coffee plant, caused by a rust-fungus, Hemileia vastatrix; coffee machine, an apparatus for making coffee; coffee-mill, a small hand-mill for grinding roasted coffee-beans; (see also quots. 1887, 1916); coffee morning, a morning coffee-party; coffee-nib, a coffee-bean; coffee-nut, the fruit of Gymnocladus canadensis, the Kentucky Coffee-tree, used by early settlers as a substitute for coffee; coffee palace, a large and sumptuous coffee-tavern; coffee parlour: see palace n.1 4 (quot. 1894); coffee-party, a gathering at which coffee is served; † coffee-powder, ground coffee; coffee-rat (see quot.); coffee-roaster, (a) one whose business is to roast coffee-beans; (b) an apparatus for roasting coffee; coffee rot, a disease of the coffee plant, caused by the fungus Pellicularia kolerota; coffee royal, (a) black coffee with an added liquor; (b) (see quot. 1929); † coffee-sage = coffee-wit; coffee-set, a set of ware used in serving coffee; coffee shop, (a) a shop where coffee is sold; (b) in India, a place at which the residents of a station (esp. in Upper India) meet for talk over a light breakfast of coffee, toast, etc., at an earlier hour than the regular breakfast of the day; the name is also applied to the gathering, and so to the halt of a regiment for refreshment on an early march, etc.; (c) U.S. a café or restaurant, usu. attached to a hotel, where meals as well as light refreshments can be bought; coffee spoon, a small spoon of a size suitable for stirring coffee in a cup; coffee stall, a movable structure in which coffee, as a beverage, and other light refreshments are sold; also attrib.; coffee-stand, (a) a support for a coffee-pot; (b) a stall for the sale of coffee; coffee sugar, a kind of sugar, freq. coloured and usually in crystal form, used for sweetening coffee; coffee table, a low occasional table for serving coffee; hence coffee-table book (see quot. 1963); coffee-tavern, a tavern or public house where coffee and other non-intoxicating drinks and refreshments are sold; coffee-tea, an infusion of the leaves of the coffee-plant; coffee tray, a tray from which coffee is served; coffee-walk, the space between the rows of trees in a coffee-plantation; † coffee-wit, a wit who frequents coffee-houses (see quots.). See also coffee-house n., -man, -pot, -room, -woman.
1901Weingarten, *Coffee and. 1931‘Dean Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route xv. 172 The hash house where they sup plentiously [sic] on coffee-ands. 1949Collier's 27 Aug. 27 A saloon on Stanton Street hands out ‘coffee and’ each morning.
1905Daily Chron. 11 July 3/2 *Coffee-bar and grocery stall keepers. 1957Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Oct. 621/3 The seedy group of coffee-bar philosophers..spouting their sad rehash of dated Fascist clichés. 1958New Statesman 30 Aug. 243/2 Most of the coffee-bars that have sprung up in London are dark, fancily decorated dives.
1881J. H. Ewing We & the World xv. 155 So you live in the docks with your *coffee-barrow?
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 81/1 The *Coffee Bean, or Berry..grow two in a thin furrowed husk. 1821T. Nuttall Trav. Arkansas iii. 72 We still..observe the coffee-bean (Gymnocladus canadensis),..the seeds of which..produce a substitute for coffee greatly inferior to the cichorium. 1855J. W. Croker in Croker Pap. (1884) III. xxix. 327 Is it possible that raw coffee-beans were issued to the troops in the camp? 1948Miami (Oklahoma) Daily Record 30 June 8/2 Farmers call it bladderpod, coffee bean and castle-bean.
1662Petty Taxes 46 The importation of forty thousand pounds worth of *coffee-berries. 1822J. Woods Two Yrs.' Resid. Eng. Prairie 306 The woods..contain a great variety of trees;..On the creek bottoms, *coffee-berry, poplar, pecon, white walnut, &c. 1866Treas. Bot. 310 When ripe, the coffee berries are gathered, and the soft outer pulp removed.
1803*Coffee biggin [see biggin2]. 1819Rees Cycl. s.v., The powdered coffee is sometimes put into a linen bag or strainer suspended at the mouth of a coffee can or, as it is called in the North of England, a coffee biggin. 1839–60Ure Dict. Arts (L.), The coffee-biggin with the perforated tin strainer.
1951Time 5 Mar. 25/3 Since the war, the *coffee break has been written into union contracts. 1958L. A. G. Strong Treason in Egg iii. 59 During the coffee break, Carstairs had ostentatiously kept on the far side of the room from Ellis. 1959P. H. Johnson Humbler Creation xvi. 112 Better have a coffee-break. Then we can get down to it again.
1879Golden Hours XI. 326/2 Cut up the bread—rye bread, wheat bread, Graham bread, and German *coffee-cake. 1885Cuisine Creole 161 Coffee Cake. 1923M. Wilson Able McLaughlins xii, The German led her into the shanty, and set before her..coffee and coffee-cake. 1936L. G. Nicoll Eng. Cookery Bk. 330 Coffee Cake... Beat the eggs and stir into flour. Add the golden syrup and coffee essence and milk. 1970M. Berry Cookbook 154 Tia Maria Coffee Cake... Blend together the coffee essence and Tia Maria.
1905Daily Chron. 29 May 8/5 *Coffee-coats have been banished to the limbo of forgotten things.
1876J. H. Bradley Jrnl. in Montana Hist. Soc. Contrib. (1896) II. 162 We are assured that we shall easily fill up the complement in spite of the cold water cast upon our efforts by the ‘*coffee-coolers’ as the shiftless, superannuated loungers about camp are very aptly termed. 1890Congress. Rec. 30 Apr., App. 106 Those who..delight in characterizing the old soldiers as ‘coffee coolers’, ‘bounty jumpers’, and ‘bummers’. 1895Ibid. 18 Jan. 1129/2, I am opposed to giving pensions to deserters, and ‘coffee-coolers’, and bounty jumpers, and camp followers. 1939H. H. Smith We pointed them North xvii. 177 The government..drawed up a treaty fixing the new boundaries for the reservation,..and they got some of these coffee-coolers to consent to it.
1859Tennent Ceylon I. 261 The *coffee-bug..for some years past has devastated some of the plantations in Ceylon. 1868M. Jewry Warne's Model Cookery Bk. 553/1 *Coffee Cream, made coffee..sugar..milk..eggs..gelatine. 1891Confectioners' Union 15 Aug. 428 (Advt.), A few chocolates... Chinese cubes. Coffee creams. Coker nut creams. 1900E. Glyn Visits Eliz. (1906) 88, I don't know how we should have got through tea if the coffee-cream cakes had not been so good. 1906Mrs. Beeton Househ. Managem. xxxiii. 1006 Coffee cream..cream..coffee essence..gelatine. 1940‘R. Crompton’ William & Evacuees ii. 48 Coffee cream, that's better. 1950J. G. Davis Dict. Dairying 228 ‘Coffee cream’ or ‘fruit cream’ may be about 22 per cent [in fat content].
1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 95, I have a *coffee-cup of his ware. 1855Russell Crimean War vi. (L.), Begemmed coffee-cups were handed about.
1959Chambers's Encycl., Index, Coffee leaf rust..and *coffee disease.
1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1990/4 Two *Coffee Dishes Plated with Silver.
[1877H. Ruede Sod-House Days (1937) 99 To give the beverage [i.e. rye coffee] a ranker flavor, what is known as ‘*coffee essence’ is used... This essence is a hard, black paste put up in tins... It is probably made of bran and molasses. ]1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 9/2 Coffee Essence, Hummel's, in tin cans. 1910H. Belloc Pongo & Bull viii. 105 He had..poured [boiling water] upon the coffee essence which he kept beside him in a cup. 1957N. Marsh Off with his Head iv. 69 The others sipped coffee essence and superb brandy.
1764Low Life 89 Young women..resolving lawful Questions by *Coffee-Grounds. 1885C. H. Fagge Princ. Med. II. Index, *Coffee-ground vomit in cancer of stomach. 1907Practitioner Apr. 546 [It] leads to haemorrhage and to the clinically characteristic ‘coffee-ground’ vomit.
1901Daily Chron. 3 Aug. 10/3 The newest tea jackets have changed their names to *coffee jackets.
1895*Coffee-clatch [see fairy n. 5 c]. 1951Notes from Betty Crocker Kitchen (General Mills Co.) 3 (heading) Afternoon coffee klatsch. 1964F. Pohl in Galaxy Oct. 184/2 Poor attendance at neighborhood coffee-klatsches.
1877Encycl. Brit. VI. 112/2 The..*coffee-leaf disease appeared in Ceylon in 1869, and in Mysore a year later. 1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr 107 The coffee-leaf disease..is not likely to infect the coffee-trees in this part.
1894Country Gentlemen's Catal. 104 The only *Coffee Machine that extracts all the aroma. 1909H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iii. iii. 354 My aunt, reading a letter behind her coffee-machine... We were breakfasting together. 1933E. Hemingway Winner take Nothing (1934) 32 A bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine. 1961W. Buchan Helen all Alone 5 The coffee machine boiled over.
1691North in Autobiog. (1887) 225, I desire..you will get me a very good *coffee mill. 1780Kippis in Biog. Brit. II. 315 His father..was a coffee-mill-maker. 1848E. Bryant California ii. 21 Jacob..could not make the coffee-mill perform its appropriate duty. 1863B. Taylor H. Thurston III. iii. 69 Then he heard..a stirring in the kitchen under him, and presently the noise of the coffee-mill. 1887H. L. Williams ‘Buffalo Bill’ 10 One of the old-pattern Colts, with the barrels revolving, the ancient ‘coffee-mill’ or ‘pepper-box’, laughed at all over the West in the present day. 1904A. Bennett Great Man xxiv. 268 She brought him the coffee-mill full of coffee, and told him to grind it. 1916Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 601/1 A quaint mechanical rifle, described as a mitrailleuse, which was an improved revival of the ‘coffee-mill’ used in the American Civil War.
1962‘G. Cullingford’ Third Party Risk vi. 81 The ordinary members..had privately promoted a *coffee morning in the name of charity..the hostess provided..coffee and biscuits and the visiting ladies provided..one shilling per capita. 1970Times 5 Mar. 7/1 Breads and cakes to serve for a coffee morning should be light and sweet but not rich.
1879Postmaster General's Rept. 54 Some of the ‘*Coffee Palaces’ recently established in London and elsewhere. 1886Pall Mall G. 22 May 2/1, I [app. Dr. Barnardo] planned the New Edinburgh Castle as the first coffee palace in the United Kingdom.
1886L. M. Alcott Jo's Boys xiii. 225 He..chatted..at some select *coffee-party. 1937Auden & MacNeice Lett. from Iceland xii. 168 Not that..I could breathe if I lived in Cambridge. All those coffee-parties.
1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1750/4 Fine *Coffee-Powder, from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per Pound, or the Parched Berries at the same rate.
1859Tennent Ceylon I. 149 The *coffee-rat is an insular variety of the Mus hirsutus of W. Elliott, found in Southern India.
1737Common Sense (1738) I. 279, I was bred to the Trade of a *Coffee-Roaster. 1855Browning How it strikes 25 The coffee-roaster's brazier.
1877Encycl. Brit. VI. 112/2 The *coffee-rot..works great havoc in the Mysore plantations.
1921Adventure 18 July 36/1 Let's fergit all them bygones in a good cup o' *coffee royal. 1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 29 Coffee royal, the first mug of coffee in the morning under sail.
1786J. Wedgewood Let. 30 June (1965) 297 Tea and *coffee sets. 1856Mrs. Stowe Dred 18 A table, which displayed an antique coffee-set of silver.
1838Dickens O. Twist xxvi, Field-lane..has its barber, its *coffee-shop. 1880J. W. Sherer Conjuror's Dau. 202 After his return to India..one day when he was at coffee-shop in the morning, etc. 1890Brandreth (in Letter), The coffee-shop is essentially a social gathering. 1940G. Marx Let. 16 Dec. (1967) 189 Met Ira Gershwin this morning in the coffee shop at the Essex. 1966F. Hoyle Oct. First vi. 58 When I came down to breakfast in the coffee shop..I ordered a stack of wheat-cakes and coffee.
1703N. Blundell Diary 20 May (1952) i. 12, I presented my gilt *Coffy spoones. 1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 438/1 Fancy Engraved Coffee Spoon..43/8 inches. 1917T. S. Eliot Prufrock 12, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. 1920F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise (1921) ii. v. 265 Dirty restaurants where careless, tired people helped themselves to sugar with their own used coffee⁓spoons.
1850Thackeray Pendennis II. xvii. 164 From his station at the *coffee-stall, Huxter spied him. 1909Daily Chron. 13 Nov. 4/7 The coffee-stall keeper, after occupying the same ‘pitch’ for years, regards himself as possessing a ‘goodwill’ in the site. 1924‘R. Crompton’ William—the Fourth vii. 117 A coffee-stall could be seen in a glare of flaming oil-jets.
1926Gleanings in Bee Culture Sept. 606/1, I had tried lumps of *coffee sugar and these crumbled down on the bottom of the hive. 1930R. Kipling Thy Servant a Dog 28 There was wonderful things-under-table at dinner... Afterwards, was coffee-sugar. 1959M. Sharp Rescuers iv. 56 She fed Nils [sc. a mouse] with coffee sugar. 1959Which? Oct. 133/1 What sense is there, if any, in paying nearly 2s. a lb. to sweeten one's coffee with coffee sugar if granulated sugar at 8½d. is good enough for tea?
1877C. Cook House Beautiful 70 (caption) *Coffee-Table with Chair, both of Black Wood. 1959J. Braine Vodi xxi. 229 I'm going to..buy a little coffee-table from Woolworth's. 1962J. Lynch (title) The coffee table book of astrology. 1963Sunday Times Mag. 24 Nov. 23 They used to be called grand-piano books. Now they're known as coffee-table books: ‘too big for a bookshelf, full of beautiful pictures, costing a lot’. 1966Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 13/1 He has just produced a book called ‘David Hicks on Decoration’. It is a sploshy big, coffee-table book in glorious colour.
1866Treas. Bot. 311 A patent..for the introduction of *Coffee-tea.
1843J. R. Planché Extravaganzas (1879) II. 202 When clattering comes the *coffee-tray and all your drinking's done. 1929E. Bowen Joining Charles 39 The two had breakfasted; the coffee-tray..was littered with cigarette-ends.
1832H. Martineau Demerara i. 7 They were marched off to their labour in the *coffee-walks.
1667Dryden Ind. Emperor Epil., As for the *Coffee-wits he says not much, Their proper Bus'ness is to Damn the Dutch. 1672Wycherley Love in Wood ii. i, Lydia. What is the coffee-wit? Dap. He is a..gossiping, quibbling wretch, and sets people together by the ears over that sober drink, coffee.
▸ coffee culture n. a lifestyle or culture for which drinking coffee (or going to cafés) is a characteristic (social) activity.
1983Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 16 Nov. Followup studies should be done in places with a ‘*coffee culture’ similar to that of Norway, where people drink lots of boiled black coffee and shun decaffinated coffee. 1984Restaurant Business Mag. (Nexis) 1 May 121 When American food was first developed, our culture was a coffee culture and our food was coffee food. 1999Sunday Times 18 Apr. (Style section) 18/1 Like sticky buns and super sandwiches? Get into coffee culture.
▪ II. coffee, v.
[f. the n.]
1. intr. To drink coffee.
1851G. W. Curtis Nile Notes xiii. 100 He coffeed and smoked,..gave us all the last news [etc.]. 1862G. du Maurier Let. Oct. (1951) 177 After which my pet I dined at Pamphilon's and coffeed in Berners Street. 1885W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle xxiii. 277 Rose very early, coffeed in haste, and..set out.
2. trans. To entertain at coffee.
1868S. Hale Lett. (1919) 48 The Colonel, who coffeed us the day before. |