▪ I. ˈcoffee-house, n.
1. A house of entertainment where coffee and other refreshments are supplied. (Much frequented in 17th and 18th c. for the purpose of political and literary conversation, circulation of news, etc.)
The places now so called have lost this character, and are simply refreshment-houses.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. i. 66 Coffa-houses [in Constantinople]..There sit they chatting most of the day, and sippe of a drinke called Coffa. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Cauphe-house, a Tavern or Inn where they sel Cauphe. 1664 Pepys Diary 24 Nov., To a coffee-house, to drink jocolatte. a 1672 Wood Life (1848) 48 This yeare [1650] Jacob a Jew opened a coffey house at the Angel in the parish of S. Peter in the east, Oxon. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 46 ¶2 At Lloyd's Coffee-house where the Auctions are usually kept. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 198 The leaders of the legislative clubs and coffee-houses. 1817 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. xi. 354 Anecdotes of court excesses..in daily circulation through the coffee-houses. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 366 Every coffee-house had one or more orators, to whose eloquence the crowd listened with admiration. |
2. attrib. and Comb.
| 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1910/4 A Coffee-house-man at the corner house in Brook-street. 1704 Swift Batt. Bks. (1750) 19 Coffeehouse-wits. 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5900/4 Mary Hassard..Coffee-House-Holder. 1751 J. Brown Shaftesb. Charac. 137 Our modish coffee-house philosophers. 1752 Hume Pol. Disc. i. 1 What we can learn from every coffee-house conversation. 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 150 His lordship was apt to be too civil..To-day he was quite the coffee-house waiter. He praised everything. 1876 ― Sp., Mere coffee-house babble. |
▪ II. coffee-house, v. intr. slang.
To indulge in gossip (orig. while waiting for the hounds to draw a covert, etc., during a fox-hunt). Chiefly in vbl. n. (also attrib.). Also coffee-houser, one who indulges in the practice.
| 1861 ‘Scrutator’ Recoll. Fox-hunter ix. 151 [He] seldom viewed a fox at all; he was always coffee-housing with some particular friend. 1883 Mrs. E. Kennard Right Sort xxiii, She found the hounds still engaged in drawing a large wood.., and people were standing about in clusters of twos and threes coffee-housing. 1892 Field 6 Feb. 188/2 The field are ‘coffee-housing’ around when ‘Tally-ho!’ and they are away. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 2/1 ‘Coffee-housing’—to wit, chatting about runs past and future, and discoursing upon.. hounds and horses. 1907 Ibid. 5 Nov. 12/1 The term ‘coffee-housers’ is used by a certain quaint old M.F.H. to reproach those loud talkers who hinder the serious business..by the chatter of irresponsible frivolity. 1909 Daily Chron. 7 June 5/1 You, gentlemen, come here on no coffee-housing tour. 1961 ‘J. Welcome’ Beware of Midnight vi. 76 I'll catch it if Firmian finds me coffee-housing here. 1964 A. Powell Valley of Bones iv. 243 We must get on with the job, not spend our time coffee-housing here. |