subs. (old colloquial).—1. An entertainment or party; in modern usage spec. of children and schools. Hence (common) = something paid for by an elder or superior, or given as a token of good will and affection: e.g., a drink, a dinner, a theatre-ticket, an entertainment, or the like. Also (2) a turn in a round of drinks: ‘It’s my TREAT.’ As verb (or TO STAND TREAT) = to bear the expense of refreshments, an outing, or an entertainment. Also ‘It does me a TREAT’ = ‘That’s O.K.; real jam, and no error.’ See TREATING.
1660. PEPYS, Diary, I. 195. My wife and I by water to Captain Lambert’s, where we took great pleasure in their turret-garden … and afterwards had a very handsome TREATE and good musique that she made upon the haipsicord.
1672. WYCHERLEY, Love in a Wood, i. 1. Did you ever know a Widow refuse a TREAT? no more than a Lawyer a Fee. Ibid., ii. 1. Fetch us a TREAT, as you call it.
1695. PRIOR, Prol. spoken in Westminster School.
| Our generous scenes are for pure love repeated, | |
| And if you are not pleas’d, at least you’re TREATED. | |
| Ibid., Orphan, ‘Prologue.’ | |
| Our gen’rous Scenes for Friendship we repeat; | |
| And if we don’t Delight, at least we TREAT. |
1706. Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony, 2.
| The TREATS and Balls she is invited to, | |
| And he good Man, consents that she shall go. |
1710. SWIFT, The Journal to Stella, 31 Oct., vii. I dined with Mr Addison and Dick Stuart, Lord Mountjoy’s brother; a TREAT of Addison’s.
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xlvii. I desired her, however, to sit, and TREATED her with a dish of tea. Ibid. (1749), Gil Blas (1812), II. ix. Thy uncle, the mercer, TREATED yesterday, and regaled us with a pastoral feast.
1848. THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, xxxv. We don’t have meat every day … and it is a TREAT to me to get a dinner like this.
1855. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Nature and Human Nature, I. vi. I was never sold so before, I vow; I cave in, I holler, and will stand TREAT.
1885. Weekly Echo, 5 Sept. She and the girl were attending with donkeys at the annual TREAT at a Convalescent Home for children.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 39. He put down a sovereign to TREAT us, And I collared the change by mistake.
3. (common).—In sarcasm: a nuisance, a TERROR (q.v.), anybody or anything objectionable.
