[f. TEA sb. + CHEST sb.1]
† 1. = Tea-caddy: see TEA sb. 9 c. Obs.
1740. Mrs. Delany, in Life & Corr. (1861), II. 97. I have got a very neat tea-chest for Mrs. Yate, which shall be filled with tea, and delivered to her.
1775. Ash, Teachest, a small kind of cabinet in which tea is brought to table.
1780. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, April. I was putting away the tea-chest.
c. 1850. [Remembered in use at Cambridge].
2. A large box or chest of cubical form, lined with sheet-lead, in which tea is packed for transport: cf. CHEST sb.1 6. Also attrib.
1801. Hulme, in Phil. Trans., XCI. 403. Flat lead, such as lines Chinese tea-chests.
1893. F. F. Moore, I Forbid Banns (1899), 100. The furniture had not the appearance of being made out of flour barrels and tea-chests. There was not much of the tea-chest look about the old oak dresser.
