[f. TABLE sb. In some senses representing F. tabler (1544 in Godef.) or med.L. tabulāre (Du Cange).]
1. trans. To enter in a table or list; to tabulate (now rare); † to appoint (a person) to some duty by entering his name in a table or list (obs.).
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 324. The secunde and thryd antemes and matens schal be bygon of them that be tabled unto them.
1550. Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Cl.), I. 105. That the baillies … tabill certane honest men for gadering of Sanct Gelis lycht.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. iv. 6. Though the Catalogue of his endowments had bin tabled by his side.
c. 1630. Sir T. Hope, Minor Practicks (1726), 5. There can be no Protestation granted upon the Copy, till the Copy be tabled.
1838. [implied in TABLING vbl. sb. 1].
2. a. To entertain at table as a guest, or for payment; to provide with meals, or gen. with food; = BOARD v. 8. Now rare.
1457–8. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 297. Every of the Baylyfys to tabyll one of them.
1553. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 414. Every Maior … shall tabull and vittaill towe massons or carpinders in his own housse.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 75. They haue … ten pound a yeere … and table themselues also of the same.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 166. He entertained the Freers and tabled them at his owne charge.
1715. Brokesby, Life Dodwell, 306. Mr. Cherry … procured a Place for him where he might be tabled.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 12 Sept., 8/1. At ten o’clock the establishment is closed, after having often tabled between four and five hundred persons.
b. intr. (for refl.) To have a meal, to dine; to take one’s meals habitually (at a specified place or with a specified person); = BOARD v. 9. Now rare or Obs.
1562. Child Marr., 139. He came to Schole to Northerden,… and tablid at Withinshawe, with James Barlowe.
1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Ghost, 14. Comming to Ordinaries about the Exchange where Merchants do table for the most part.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1810), IV. lvi. 370. O that,… as she boarded there, she had oftener tabled with them!
1857. J. Raine, Life J. Hodgson, I. 14. It seems to be pretty clear that Hodgson had tabled with this talkative but hearty man.
3. trans. a. To picture, depict, represent as in a picture: cf. TABLE sb. 3. Obs. (or rare arch.)
1607–8. Bacon, Let. to Matthew, in Spedding, Life & Lett. (1868), IV. 10. This last Powder Treason, fit to be tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation, as another hell above the ground.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), xx. 326. That we, in the dark chamber of the heart,… see the world tabled to us.
b. To fix as on a tablet. rare–1.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), xxxi. 530. Thine the stars Tabled upon Thy bosom like the stones Oracular of light, on the priest’s breast.
4. To place or lay upon a table.
a. To lay (an appeal, proposal, resolution, bill, etc.) on the table of a deliberative or legislative assembly; hence, to bring forward or submit for discussion or consideration. In the U.S. Congress, to lay on the table as a way of postponing indefinitely; to shelve: cf. TABLE sb. 5 b.
1718. Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 378. Another act was passed … that all appeals should be brought up and tabled before the Bills, within three days after the Assembly sit down. Ibid. (1726), III. 245. Provost Campbell’s appeal … was tabled, and the President and others moved a committee might be named to take it up.
1862. Star & Dial, 14 March. Mr. Walpole has tabled a set of resolutions devised in the true Conservative spirit.
1866. Daily Tel., 30 Jan. To table a resolution has nearly the same effect in America as the order to read a bill ‘this day six months’ has in England.
1887. Pall Mall G., 3 Jan., 11/1. If any more ‘Old Residents’ wish to be heard they must table their names.
b. With other implications: esp. to pay down (money); to throw down or play (a card).
1827. Carlyle, Germ. Rom., III. 224. Could he tell what to … table [for the lackey]? Ibid. (1832), J. Carlyle, 45. A refreshment of ale, for which he too used to table his twopence. Ibid. (1837), Fr. Rev., II. III. vi. Royalty has always that sure trump-card in its hand;… yet never tables it, still puts it back again.
1878. Bayne, Purit. Rev., v. 177. When the Short Parliament of 1640 refused to grant supplies, Laud’s clergy in Convocation tabled their money.
1892. Gard. Chron., 27 Aug., 248/2. The nurserymen and florists tabled a large and fine assortment of cut flowers.
5. To furnish (a room) with tables. nonce-use.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxvii. The offices were … newly tabled.
6. Carpentry. To join two pieces of timber firmly together by means of flat oblong projections (called ‘tables’ or ‘coaks’: see TABLE sb. 17 f, COAK sb. 1) in each alternately, fitting into corresponding recesses in the other. Also intr. for pass.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 23. Cheeks … sometimes table on to the mast-head thus.
1794–c. 1850. [see TABLING vbl. sb. 7].
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 402/1. The customary way of putting them together is to table them; and the length of the tablings should be one-half more than the depth of the beam.
7. Sailmaking. To make a broad hem or ‘tabling’ on the edge of (a sail), to strengthen it in that part which is sewed to the bolt-rope (see TABLING vbl. sb. 8).
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 89. Tabled, the edges turned over and sewed down.
1797. in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 433/1. That the lower side of the band may be tabled upon or sewed over the end of the buntline pieces. Ibid. The buntline cloths and top-linings are carried up to the lower side of the middle band, which is tabled on them.
8. To sift (shot): see quot.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 436. About three different sizes come out through one pan. These are separated by the aid of riddles, or tabled, as the process is termed.
