coffee

plural coffees · alternative rare coffée

1. uncountableA beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.First known use 1598

   He and his friends used to order coffee whenever they went out.

   5 more examples

   The Turks have a drink called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter[…], which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can suffer[…].

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v

   VVhat a devil makes thee in ſo muſty a humour? Thou art as dull and dumpiſh as a fellovv that had been drunk over night vvith Ale, and had done nothing but drunk Coffee, talked Politicks, and read Gazettes all this morning.

   1672, Thomas Shadwell, The Miser: A Comedy, […], London: […] Thomas Collins and John Ford, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1

   The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel, for where coffee is used as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known.

   1848, J. S. Skinner & Son, editor, The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil, volume I, Philadelphia: J. S. Skinner & Son, page 137

   "He was here," observed Drina composedly, "and father was angry with him." / "What?" exclaimed Eileen. "When?" / "This morning, before father went downtown." / Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served—cambric tea in Drina's case.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   […]a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain[…]shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”:[…]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

   2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68

2. countableA serving of this beverage.

   As I sip a coffee at Brasserie Balzar, two well-known intellectuals, one publisher and a Sorbonne professor were discussing Sarkozy's future: "He won't finish his mandate" says one.

   2008 April 12, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian

3. countableuncountableThe seeds of the plant used to make coffee, called ‘beans’ due to their shape.
4. countableuncountableThe powder made by roasting and grinding the seeds.
5. countableuncountableA tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
6. countableuncountableA pale brown color, like that of milky coffee.
7. countableuncountableThe end of a meal, when coffee is served.

   He did not stay for coffee.

alternative rare coffée

1. not comparableOf a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
2. not comparableOf a table: a small, low table suitable for people in lounge seating to put coffee cups on.

present singular third person coffees · participle present coffeeing · participle past coffeed · past coffeed · participle past coffee'd · past coffee'd · alternative rare coffée

1. intransitiveTo drink coffee.

   We had coffee’d with the scoundrel[…]

   1912, Pearson’s Magazine, page 225

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   I rushed into my cabin, coffeed, wined, and went to bed sobbing.

   1839, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker

   In the afternoon with Hilda and suite in three Einspänner to just beyond Pontresina; we got out and crossed the bridge over the Bernina to Sans Souci Café, where we coffee’d.

   1900, Clement Kinloch-Cooke, editor, A Memoir of Her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck: Based on Her Private Diaries and Letters, page 224

   Mr. and Mrs. Ted Craig (he^([sic]) speaker of the assembly) emerging from a popular drive-in after having sandwiched and coffeed . . .

   1935 June 29, Ellen Snebley, “Teapot Tattle”, in Santa Ana Journal, volume 1, number 52, Santa Ana, Calif., page eight

   When Sala sits for Lambeth, then what can’t the House discuss? / He has coffee’d with the Moslem, he has tea’d it with the Russ; / He can analyze the natives from Granada to New York; / He has tasted pumpkin squashes! he can speak the tongue of Cork.

   1942, Ralph Straus, editor, Sala: The Portrait of an Eminent Victorian, page 228

   I coffee-ed with your girl friend this morning, her daughter having long since gone to town to make some final arrangements about a Catholic Daughters' frolic for tonight.

   1956 January 24, Journal of François Mignon, page 7794

2. transitiveTo give coffee to.

   There we were met by enterprising citizens and coffeed and sandwiched by pretty girls.

   1929, Howard W[allace] Peak, A Ranger of Commerce or 52 Years on the Road, page 87

   5 more examples

   The association of veteran firemen, which has a membership of 200, kept open house for New Year callers, and all comers were bountifully sandwiched and coffeed.

   1897 January 7, “City’s Veteran Firemen. New Year Reception. The Rooms of the Association Filled with Guests. Reminiscences, Reunion, and Refreshments,”, in The Pittsfield Sun, volume 97, number 26, Pittsfield, Mass., page 7

   Here at Camp Wheeler we “coffeed” and “sandwiched” the drafted men when they came from Camp Gordon several weeks ago, and the men from Camp Pike more recently.

   1917 November 11, Dumas Malone, “The Ring and the Red Triangle: How the Men Who Wear the New Insignia Go With the Army”, in The Macon Daily Telegraph, Macon, Ga., first section, article section “The Ever-Ready Hut”, page four

   Five soldiers had been sandwiched and coffeed at the Elks canteen, were a little short of money, needed haircuts.

   1942 August 31, “Who Clipped the Soldiers’—Hair?”, in Harrisburg Telegraph, volume CXII, number 206, Harrisburg, Pa., second section, page 9

   I write this on the kitchen table at the home of the kind Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Ebert, who sandwiched and coffee’d me.

   1959 October 7, Charles House, “Charlie Pauses at 75-Mile Mark To Recount Latest Adventures”, in Appleton Post-Crescent, volume LI, number 88, Appleton-Neenah-Menasha, Wis., section “Coffee Break”, page A16

   Mrs. Robert (Helen) Adickes, of Flintridge, mate of the chairman of the Pilots For Goldwater committee, was in there pitching as usual seeing that everyone was fed and coffeed or, in the case of the young colts and fillies, sandwiched and popped.

   1964 October 13, Gene Cowles, Valley Times, volume 27, number 246, San Fernando Valley, Calif., page 15

plural Coffees

1. A surname.
2. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Coffee County.