ˈtable-land
[f. table n. + land n.1]
An elevated region of land with a generally level surface, of large or considerable extent; a lofty plain; a plateau.
| 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. xix. 531 The most remarkable Land at Sea is a high Mountain, steep to the Sea, with a flat even top, which is called the Table Land [at the Cape of Good Hope]. 1774 Cook Voy. S. Pole iii. iv. (1777) II. 50 At sun-rise we discovered a high table land (an island) bearing E. by S. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 70 (Lucy) The common..is one of a series of heathy hills, or rather a high table land, pierced in one part by a ravine or marshy ground. 1899 Baring-Gould Bk. of West I. x. 155 The great irregular tableland of Dartmoor, over a thousand feet above the sea. |
b. Without a or pl.: Elevated level ground.
| 1836 W. Irving Astoria (1849) 248 These lofty plats of table-land seem to form a peculiar feature in the American continents. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 190 One long line of table-land.., half mountain, half plain. |
c. fig.
| 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 12 He [Shakspere] indeed overlooks and commands the admiration of posterity, but he does it from the table-land of the age in which he lived. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. iii. xxii, A healthy Briton on the central table-land of life. |