[tee] 
| 1. | the dried and prepared leaves of a shrub, Camellia sinensis, from which a somewhat bitter, aromatic beverage is prepared by infusion in hot water. |
| 2. | the shrub itself, extensively cultivated in China, Japan, India, etc., and having fragrant white flowers. Compare tea family. |
| 3. | the beverage so prepared, served hot or iced. |
| 4. | any kind of leaves, flowers, etc., so used, or any plant yielding them. |
| 5. | any of various infusions prepared from the leaves, flowers, etc., of other plants, and used as beverages or medicines. |
| 6. | beef bouillon. |
| 7. | British. any meal, whether a light snack or one consisting of several courses, eaten in the late afternoon or in the evening; any meal other than dinner, eaten after the middle of the afternoon. |
| 8. | an afternoon reception at which tea is served. |
| 9. | Slang. marijuana. |
| 10. | one's cup of tea, something suitable, appropriate, or attractive to one: Horror movies and westerns are just not my cup of tea. |
| tea (tē) n.
[Probably Dutch thee, from Malay teh, from Chinese (Amoy) te (equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) chá).] Word History: "Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,/ Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea." When Alexander Pope wrote these lines from The Rape of the Lock in 1714, tea still rhymed with obey. This was true of many words spelled with ea, and it was just about in Pope's time that nearly all these words started changing their pronunciation from (ā) to (ē), as in our modern pronunciation of tea (tē). Most modern English words whose main vowel sound is spelled -ea- were pronounced with long vowels in Middle and Old English. Many of these vowels were shortened in the 16th and 17th century to their modern pronunciations, as in our words dead and sweat. But those words that were pronounced with an (ā) sound in Middle English did not undergo this sound change and kept their long vowels, undergoing the further change in Pope's time to the modern "long e" sound. There were several exceptions to this last sound change, most notably the words break, great, and steak. Interestingly, the old pronunciation is also retained in Irish family names, such as Reagan, Shea, Beatty, and Yeats (in contrast to British family names such as Keats). |
| TEA torque equilibrium attitude |