tea-gown
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]- A loose-fitting semiformal gown, made of light fabrics, worn in the late 19th and early 20th century for entertaining, especially for afternoon tea.
- Synonym: tea dress
- 1893, Arthur Moore, A Comedy of Masks[1], page 309:
- Eve crushed in a corner, a sorrowful, dainty shape in the silk and lace of her pretty tea-gown, with the white drawn face of a scared child […]
- 1868, Edwin Waugh, Dules-gate; or, a Frisk through Lancashire Clough[2], page 4:
- Across the white silken draperies of her tea-gown her two little hands are loosely locked together amongst the laces that adorn it, and from beneath its lowermost frill I can just see the point of a tiny satin slipper.
- 1923, Country Life, volume 54, page 164:
- There is probably no form of gown more replete with interest to the artistic designer, nor one that lends itself to greater individuality of expression, than the tea-gown.
- 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 269:
- '[H]er luggage contained only a chiffon negligée so elaborate as to be more a tea gown than a dressing-gown.'