‖ teapoy Anglo-Ind.
(ˈtiːpɔɪ)
Also tepoy.
[f. Hindī tīn, in comb. tir- three + Pers. pāë, pāï foot. The legitimate Persian name is sihpāya or sipāï; the Hindī tirpad or tripad (Yule).]
A small three-legged table or stand, or any tripod; (by erron. association with tea), such a table with a receptacle for tea or a tea-caddy.
| 1828 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor VI. xxix. 246 A low teapoy of sessoo wood. 1844 [? Sir J. Kaye] Peregrine Pultuney I. v. 112 A tepoy or tinpoy is a thing with three feet, used in India to denote a little table. 1887 Yan Phou Lee When I was a Boy in China 25 [The tables] were flanked by two rows of chairs..with tea-poys between that served to hold the cups of guests. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Tea-poy, an ornamental pedestal table, with lifting top, enclosing caddies for holding tea. 1886 Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson, Teapoy,..often in England imagined to have some connexion with tea, and hence, in London shops for japanned ware and the like, a teapoy means a tea-chest fixed on legs. But this is quite erroneous. |