dumbwaiter

plural dumbwaiters · alternative dumb waiter · alternative dumb-waiter

1. A small elevator used to move food etc. from one floor of a building to another.

   When writing he had a copyin machine: while he was a-writin he wouldn't suffer nobody to come in his room: had a dumb-waiter: when he wanted anything he had nothin to do but turn a crank and the dumb-waiter would bring him water or fruit on a plate or anything he wanted.

   1951, Isaac Jefferson, chapter 9, in Memoirs Of A Monticello Slave, University Of Virginia Press, page 27

2. obsoleteA table or set of trays on rollers used for serving food.

   Sauces, wines, all the accessories we wanted, and all of the best, were given out by our host from his dumbwaiter; and when they had made the circuit of the table, he always put them back again.

   1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 110

3. obsoleteA lazy Susan.