Also 8–9 beaufet; 8 beaufette, -fait, buffette, 9 beauffet. [a. mod.F. buffet, of unknown origin: in English, commonly spelt beau- in the 18th c., the cause of which is not apparent. Sense 3 is of recent introduction from France.]
1. A sideboard or side-table, often ornamental, for the disposition of china, plate, etc.
1718. Hickes & Nelson, J. Kettlewell, II. § 32. 135. The Plate … was placed upon a Table or Buffett.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 66. The electrical expositor stood upon a low beaufet.
1756. Colman & Thornton, Connoisseur, 15 Jan., ¶ 6. The beaufait … embellished with a variety of China.
1814. Scott, Wav., x. An old-fashioned beaufet.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. v. (1876), 34. And with this, the intrepid father mounted the buffet with great agility.
1860. T. L. Holt, John Horsleydown, 132. They passed a magnificent beaufet in the second corridor.
2. A cupboard in a recess for china and glasses.
1720. Humourist, 116. The Cat had got into the Beaufette among the Glasses, and given Life and Motion to the abovenam’d Utensils, and set them a travelling.
a. 1745. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 78. The beaufet letting in so much wind that it almost blows out the candles.
1750. Chambers, Cycl., Beaufet, Buffet, or Bufet, was antiently a little apartment separated from the rest of a room by slender wooden columns, for the disposing china and glass ware, &c., called also a cabinet.
1753. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 92. The lightning … forced the door of a beaufet at the end of the hall.
1786. Cowper, Gratitude, 33. This china that decks the alcove Which here people call a buffet [rhyme yet].
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Buffet, a cabinet or cupboard for plate, glass or china. Some years back it was the practice to make these small recesses very ornamental, in the form of niches, and left open in the front to display the contents.
ǁ 3. A refreshment bar.
1869. Daily News, 16 Dec., 5/4. A fellow traveller, who had observed in the buffet of the Marseilles station a young man of suspicious appearance.
