tearoom
See also: tea room
English
editEtymology
editFrom tea + room. In reference to a lavatory, probably as a variant of t-room ("toilet room").
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
edittearoom (plural tearooms)
- A café which serves tea, usually with light food.
- 2019 November 6, “Network News”, in Rail, page 11:
- At Rannoch, the platforms were rebuilt. Although the station tearoom couldn't be reached by rail during the closure, which started on October 5, it did help feed and sustain the workforce.
- (euphemistic, slang) A public lavatory, particularly (US gay slang, dated) as a meeting place for homosexual men.
- 1970, Laud Humphreys, Tearoom Trade:
- 2014, A Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis, page 216:
- The euphemistically named "tea room" has been used in sexual subcultures among men who have sex with men (MSM) to describe public sex environments, usually public toilets, where men meet other men in sexual interaction... The term itself might be outdated...
- (Australia) A room in a workplace set aside for tea breaks, lunch breaks, snacking, etc.; a break room.
Synonyms
edit- (cafe): See teahouse
- (public toilet used as a gay meeting place): teahouse, tea house; gingerbread office, cottage (UK); beat (Australia); see also Thesaurus:bathroom
Translations
editteahouse — see teahouse
Further reading
edit- “tearoom”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Categories:
- English compound terms
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English euphemisms
- English slang
- American English
- English dated terms
- Australian English
- English 2-syllable words
- English endocentric compounds
- en:Businesses
- en:Rooms
- en:Tea
- en:Toilet (room)