tearoom

plural tearooms · alternative tea room

1. A café which serves tea, usually with light food.

   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.

   2019 November 6, “Network News”, in Rail, page 11

   Synonyms: teahouse

2. euphemisticslangA public lavatory.

   Synonyms: teahouse, gingerbread office, cottage, beat, bathroom, latrine, necessarium, toilet

   1. USdatedeuphemisticslangLGBTA meeting place for gay men.

      I had run into Grant in a tea-room—The busy main floor crapper—a few months earlier.

      1975, chapter III, in Hard-Headed Dick, page 39

      2 more examples

      I'm deathly afraid of the tearooms though, John. Some of my best friends have been entrapped and busted by the fuzz.

      1973, chapter II, in Deep Dick, page 21

      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 The term itself might be outdated...

      2014, A Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis, page 216

      Synonyms: teahouse, gingerbread office, cottage, beat, bathroom, latrine, necessarium, toilet

3. AustraliaA room in a workplace set aside for tea breaks, lunch breaks, snacking, etc; a break room.