1. A merchant who deals in tea; a tea-dealer.
1771. T. Bridges, Adv. Bank-note, III. xix. 195–6. The last chapter left me in the hands of the tea-man, but this chapter won’t find me there for all that, because I was instantly paid to a tea-broker, who carried me directly into the city, and delivered me into the hands of the ugliest dog of a Jew that the sun ever shone upon.
1837. Whittock, etc., Bk. Trades, 441. Teaman. Such is the simple title assumed for their trade by many distinguished dealers in London—indeed, the most distinguished. They are generally those who deal in tea only. Ibid. This system of tasting is what constitutes the acme of the great Teaman’s trade.
1891. Daily News, 16 May, 5/4. The Chinese tea-men are reported to maintain a sort of incredulous nonchalance … in the face of that almost complete capture of the English market by the Indian and Ceylon teas.
2. Prison slang. (See quot.)
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 85. ‘Tea men’ … have the privilege … of having one pint of tea every evening instead or gruel.
