colloq. [f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To supply or regale with tea; to entertain at tea; to give a tea to.
1812. Sir R. Wilson, Diary (1861), I. 250. General Tormanssow fed us, and the duke tea’d; so the day passed well.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xxxvi. I breakfast, tea, and sup my lodgers.
1888. Freeman, in Stephens, Life & Lett. (1895), II. 386. We tea the local body on Wednesday.
2. intr. To drink tea; esp. to take the meal called tea, to have one’s tea.
1823. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., 551. ’Twas moved to proceed To the hall of debate, where my Lady had ‘tea’d!’
1863–5. J. Thomson, Sunday at Hampstead, IV. i. Eight of us promised to meet here And tea together at five.
1892. Furnivall, Hoccleve’s Minor P., Introd. 47. We dined on the bank opposite Hampton Court and teaed on Tatham’s island.
Hence Teaing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Teaer, one who takes tea, or attends a tea-meeting.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xx. (1893), 94. Staying guests have the advantage over mere dining or teaing ones, inasmuch as they cannot well be talked over … as those who go away are.
1874. Aldrich, Prud. Palfrey, xi. Picnics up the river … and innumerable teaings on shore.
1892. Sat. Rev., 30 July, 141/2. But 270 Congregational teaers would surely require more than eight quarts of milk?
