table-cloth
(ˈteɪb(ə)lklɒθ, -ɔː-; for pl. see cloth n.)
A cloth for covering a table. a. A cloth, usually of white linen, spread upon a table in preparation for a meal, and upon which the dishes, plates, etc. are placed.
| 1467 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 409 My mastyr paid there for a tabylle cloth ij.s. vj.d. 1496–7 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 34 Item, ij dyapre Tableclothis for the high Auter. 1575 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 363 If either fellowe or pensioner do wipe his hande or finger of the table clothe he shall pay for every time j{supd}. 1586 B. Young Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 185 Y⊇ table cloathes wer spread. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 481 Table clothes and linnen used at the solemne Coronation. 1855 Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xxvi, Clothes-basket[s]..full of tablecloths and napkins. 1885 Manch. Exam. 9 Sept. 3/1 Equal to the task of instructing a laundress in the ironing of a tablecloth. |
b. A cloth, usually of woollen material and often of ornamental design, used to cover a table permanently or when not in use for meals; = table-cover (table n. 22).
| 1610 in Eng. Wom. Dom. Mag. (1862) IV. 109 If the green table-cloth be too little I will make a pair of warm stockings of it. 1879 Crockett Kit Kennedy xlix. 358 The letter was laid down on the tablecloth, with a fast-falling rain of tears falling upon it. |
c. fig. Name for a cloud covering the flat top and hanging down over the edge of Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope.
| [1791 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VIII. 16/2 The Table Land or Mountain is sometimes suddenly capped with a white cloud, by some called the ‘spreading of the Table-cloth’.] 1836 Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 29 When the cloud that they call the Table-cloth comes down, people are often lost in the fog. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 1/3, I had no time to spare for the ascent of Table Mountain, and the tablecloth of clouds indeed forbade me to attempt it. |
Hence ˈtable-ˌclothing (-klɒθɪŋ, -ɔː-), linen for table-cloths; ˈtable-cloth-ˌwise adv., in the manner of a table-cloth; ˈtable-ˌclothy (-klɒθɪ, -ɔː-) a., resembling or suggesting a table-cloth.
| 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxxi, I'm having linen spun, an' thinking all the while it'll make sheeting and table-clothing for her when she's married. 1891 Kipling Life's Handicap, End of Passage 159 Clouds of tawny dust..flung themselves tablecloth-wise among the tops of the parched trees, and came down again. 1866 Howells Venet. Life iii, Where the marble is carven in vast and heavy folds..to simulate a curtain..it has..a harshness decidedly table-clothy. |