[Fr., = host’s table.] A common table for guests at a hotel or eating-house; a public meal served there at a stated hour and at a fixed price; an ordinary. Also attrib. as table d’hôte dinner.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 60. Neither at this time was there any ordinarie Table (which they call Table de l’hoste, the Hosts table).
a. 1667. Cowley, Ess. Verse & Prose, Liberty, Wks. (1684), 83. All this is but Tabl’d Host, ’tis crowded with people for whom he cares not.
1759. H. Walpole, Lett. to H. S. Conway, 19 Sept. Mrs. Howe, who rides a fox-chase, and dines at the table d’hôte at Grantham.
1816. Gentl. Mag., LXXXVI. I. 198/2. At Dunkirk … I found a good table d’hote, a luxury which foreign travellers do not find in England.
1838. Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ., 300/1. The table-d’hôte dinner … takes place at 2 o’clock.
