Meanings
- Synonym of English as apple pie (“quintessentially English”).
And for all that, he was as English as afternoon tea.
1926, The Argosy, page 142 more examples
'Well for a start he's years older than mummy, nobody's ever seen anything he's supposed to have painted...and for someone who's as English as afternoon tea what's he doing with a name like Lorenzo?'
2015 05, J. H. Wallder, Fragments of Tom, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 339If the Book of Common Prayer sounds as English as afternoon tea, like tea it conceals a more sinister economic and ethnographic history. Chapter 6 Modernity and the Book of Common Prayer Modernity 100.
2018 August 16, Brian Cummings, The Book of Common Prayer: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 100Synonyms: English as apple pie
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSynonym of English as apple pie (“quintessentially English”).
Cite this entry
English as afternoon tea. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/English%20as%20afternoon%20tea
“English as afternoon tea.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/English%20as%20afternoon%20tea. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “English as afternoon tea,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/English%20as%20afternoon%20tea.
Source: English as afternoon tea on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.