teatime

See also: tea-time

English

Etymology

From tea +‎ time. Compare Saterland Frisian Teetied (“teatime”), West Frisian teetiid (“teatime”), Dutch theetijd (“teatime”), German Teezeit (“teatime”), Danish tetid (“teatime”), Swedish tetid (“teatime”), Icelandic tetími (“teatime”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

teatime (countable and uncountable, plural teatimes)

1. (chiefly UK) The traditional time, in the late afternoon, for serving tea (the meal).
   • 1988, Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul:

     In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.

2. (slang, figurative, chiefly by extension of "tea" (gossip; juicy information)) A social gathering or conversation centered on sharing gossip, rumors, or other personal news.
   • 2022, Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”:

     It's me, hi
     I'm the problem, it's me
     At teatime, everybody agrees
     I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror
     It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

Alternative forms

• tea-time

Translations

a time specifically for the serving of tea

• Afrikaans: teetyd
• Esperanto: tehoro
• Finnish: teehetki
• French: heure du thé f
• German: Vesperbrot (de)
• Italian: ora del tè f
• Polish: podwieczorek (pl) m
• Turkish: çay saati (tr)