Meanings
nounhigh table (plural high tables)
plural high tables
- A dining table for the use of fellows and their guests at certain traditional and prestigious academic institutions.
No one feeds at the high table except the dons and the gentlemen-commoners, who are undergraduates in velvet caps and silk gowns[.]
1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter I, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 12
Origin
It is usually on a raised platform at the end of the dining hall, hence higher than the other tables.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
high table. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high%20table
MLA
“high table.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high%20table. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “high table,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high%20table.
Source: high table on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.