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table
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
table
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a breakfast table/room
▪ The house has a large kitchen and a breakfast room.
a desk/table/dresser etc drawer
▪ The passports are in my desk drawer.
a picnic table
a table/desk/bedside lamp
▪ He read by the light of the bedside lamp.
bedside lamp/table/cabinet etc
▪ The clock on her bedside table said half past four.
bird table
book a table (=in a restaurant)
▪ I’ll book a table for 7.30 tomorrow evening.
bussing tables
▪ Shelley had a job bussing tables.
card table
changing table
clear the table (=remove the dirty plates, forks etc)
▪ It’s Kelly’s turn to clear the table.
coffee table book
coffee table
dining table
dinner table
▪ It wasn’t a very suitable conversation for the dinner table.
dressing table
head table
high table
laying the table
▪ John was laying the table.
league table
▪ The government’s school league tables are published today.
multiplication table
occasional table
operating table
periodic table
propose/put forward/table a motion (=make a proposal)
▪ I’d like to propose a motion to move the weekly meetings to Thursdays.
snooker table/room/hall
table a resolution (=officially propose it)
▪ Siddall tabled a resolution asking for the Board’s approval of the Five Year Business Plan.
table d'hôte
table dancing
table football
table lamp
table linen
table manners (=the polite way of eating at a table)
▪ My parents expected us to have good table manners.
table manners
▪ Their children have very good table manners.
table mat
table of contents (=a list at the beginning of a document that shows the different parts into which it is divided)
▪ The program automatically creates a table of contents.
table tennis
table top
▪ Her fingers drummed on the table top.
table wine (=an inexpensive wine to drink with a meal)
▪ The vineyard produce table wines for local use.
table wine
table/kitchen scrapsAmerican English
the negotiating table (=discussing something)
▪ His first aim is to get the warring parties back to the negotiating table .
times table
▪ Do you know the eleven times table?
toning tables
top table
trestle table
vanity table
water table
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
dining
▪ Grayling has now tried a number of different shapes of dining table, including circular and triangular in varying sizes.
▪ The dining table and chairs are all in black walnut.
▪ Instead a large, old-fashioned dining table.
▪ Later she helped Mr Priddy to set the dining table upstairs.
▪ I went upstairs, had a wash then took my place at the dining table.
▪ He was like a kid making his camp under the dining room table with some blankets and pillows.
▪ She left the envelope on her dining table while she prepared her evening meal.
▪ She saw tantalizing gatherings round the bold rectangle of the dining table.
round
▪ On a small round table, polished for him by Dadda, was a bust of Tace.
▪ A round table was covered with a white linen cloth and glistening silverware.
▪ It was empty apart from a round wooden table, a large golden picture frame on one wall and a cupboard.
▪ They dream of a great castle called Camelot and a round table that could seat 150 knights.
▪ There was a paperback on the round table to the right of her chair.
▪ It was long, cool and cavernous here; customers sat at small round tables, also of teak.
▪ The round dining table is dark rosewood with a matching set of chairs.
▪ A round table covered in cracked oilcloth stood bare of bowls, jugs, cups and saucers.
wooden
▪ It was empty apart from a round wooden table, a large golden picture frame on one wall and a cupboard.
▪ Topic Vibrations Materials A wooden table or desk Demonstration 1.
▪ They ordered gins, and sat on a wooden bench before a wooden table, while Karen admired the place.
▪ She could put it beside the wooden table lamp on the cupboard by the door.
▪ Several stood at the bar, and eight or ten others were grouped in twos and threes at dark wooden tables.
▪ Leary poured coffee into wide china cups and they sat around the rough wooden kitchen table and drank.
■ NOUN
bedside
▪ Liz tiptoed to switch on the lamp on the bedside table.
▪ Not daring to put on the light, she sat up and felt for the glass of water on the bedside table.
▪ She looked at her watch on her bedside table and noted it was eight-thirty.
▪ William took her empty glass and put it with his on the bedside table.
▪ Mungo remembered seeing her teeth in a glass on the bedside table.
▪ Eve's room in the Dublin convent had no bedside table with a small radio on it.
▪ The two bedside tables were covered by stacks of magazines, yellowing newspapers, books and legal pads.
▪ I walked across to the bedside table and poured myself a large, large shot of whisky.
breakfast
▪ A Safe Place On the day when there was a full chamber pot under the breakfast table I decided to leave.
▪ She brought her sketchbook to the breakfast table and took watercolors out to dinner.
▪ She timed this operation very carefully, applying the glue just as her father was getting up from the breakfast table.
▪ Many parents will admit that before the takeoff they read Jessica stories to their kids over the breakfast table.
▪ He had actually slumped down at the breakfast table before he became aware of Kelly's presence.
▪ I come to the breakfast table one morning, trying to shake the effects of a night of work.
▪ When she reached the breakfast table, Silas, Matt and Doreen were already seated at it.
▪ Do you like to lounge in bed on weekends reading the newspaper or would you rather have coffee at the breakfast table?
card
▪ Their occasional evenings at the card table with the Youngs were one of John's few outside pleasures.
▪ Does it mean there is no shortage of card tables, as we all feared?
▪ Here a pair of 1850 card tables are for sale at up to Pounds 10,000 and a Louis XVI-style suite, £5,000.
▪ Inside there were card tables and chairs, overstuffed couches and simple kitchen equipment.
▪ A friend spent some time recently looking for a card table.
▪ Along the right wall were two card tables pushed together, covered with white paper cloths for serving refreshments.
▪ But apparently it is not flush with card tables.
▪ The rest of the team is sitting at card tables set up in the living room.
coffee
▪ Her big-boned body felt clumsy and she placed the tray on the coffee table with a loud clatter.
▪ Alice clutched the brandy glass, then set it down on the coffee table.
▪ Paperbacks in general had pushed aside the hardback, except for the specialized and coffee table markets.
▪ There are like hundreds more that are going to be in a coffee table book by the end of the year.
▪ Use better quality wood and you can turn it into a coffee table.
▪ He tapped Alice lightly on the knee with the newspaper and tossed it on the coffee table in front of her.
▪ They were in a rest area, with comfortable chairs and sofas arranged round coffee tables.
▪ Auster put the check on the coffee table, as if to say the matter had been settled.
dinner
▪ I want to be able to sit with friends around a dinner table and not think about what I am doing.
▪ Politics was discussed at the dinner table every night, and in 1960, the Kennedy-Nixon presidential contest divided his parents.
▪ Over lunch and dinner tables, at parties, and in various informal groupings, the Labour revisionists decided what to do.
▪ The dinner table had become our favorite battleground.
▪ Mildly irritated, he returned to the dinner table.
▪ Before the week is over, she will make several more shopping trips to put food on the dinner table.
▪ Wine glasses will look effective arranged down a long dinner table, alternating single large blooms with groups of tiny flowers.
▪ No speaking at the dinner table.
dressing
▪ All we took from our own home was a dressing table and a small chest of drawers.
▪ He slammed his hand down on the top of the dressing table, causing some of the bottles to topple over.
▪ I left it on her dressing table with a note.
▪ Beneath this mirror stood Miranda's surprisingly feminine dressing table, skirted in spotted white muslin frills.
▪ Even the few pots of make-up on the blue-flowered dressing table seemed to be standing to attention.
▪ She put them in the dressing table drawer with the belt and then pulled on the new silk nightdress.
▪ His wife liked little trinkets for her dressing table.
▪ A vast wardrobe in walnut, a chest of drawers, a tall-boy and a dressing table with a swing mirror.
kitchen
▪ They were still sitting at the kitchen table.
▪ At four in the morning, hunched over the kitchen table, he made lists.
▪ Just quietly leave a picture of Danniella Westbrook's disintegrating nose on the kitchen table.
▪ I felt about on the oilcloth that covered the kitchen table.
▪ She and Alice had sat opposite each other, across the kitchen table, the teapot between them.
▪ He sat down at the kitchen table.
▪ This was taking place at the kitchen table.
lamp
▪ She could put it beside the wooden table lamp on the cupboard by the door.
▪ This doctor had no projector, no screen, but had a table lamp to which I could hold up the slides.
▪ However, table lamps aren't the right solution if you are a regular bedtime reader.
▪ I sat down and he turned on a table lamp.
▪ He had asked the questions at every interrogation but always from behind the sanctuary of a powerful table lamp.
▪ She reached over and turned on a table lamp.
▪ The lacquered fibreboard coffee table above costs £20, the metal and glass table lamp £17.70.
▪ The room was half dark; only the little table lamp was on beside the bed, with its orange parchment shade.
league
▪ Britain lags behind its competitors in every measure and is bottom of the league table.
▪ Schools with an intake of troubled poor children struggle in the league tables, lose children and lose money.
▪ This will probably have a worse risk-benefit trade off than the formalised use of league tables.
▪ Additional complexities are involved if league tables contain studies from several countries.
▪ Testing and league tables were established for the consumer and were supposed to make schools more accountable to parents.
▪ I return to the setting out of league tables.
▪ That's why we're so very alarmed at the Government's new league tables.
trestle
▪ In the centre would be several lines of trestle tables carrying cages for chicken, ducks and geese with a few tame rabbits.
▪ I expected them to be together when I arrived, sitting around the trestle table in the big kitchen.
▪ The trestle tables down each side were stained with wine and strewn with the stale remains of various meals.
▪ We'd set up our white trestle table and lay out the syringes.
▪ Down the hall on each side were long trestle tables covered in the costliest silk.
▪ The Marmite and plum jam sandwiches were already curling on the trestle table under the walnut tree.
▪ Behind the familiar trestle table with its grey army blanket, sat the commanding officer flanked by two others of lesser rank.
▪ A large, bare room with big trestle tables in the centre and benches along the walls.
water
▪ When the water drops, the substances drift back along the passageways and soak into the water table.
▪ Meanwhile, the draining of the small rivers for irrigation has lowered the water table in the region.
▪ These conditions are best met in low-lying areas that were once marshland, and which still lie above a plentiful water table.
▪ A four-year drought in East Anglia and extra demands for water from a burgeoning local population have lowered the water table.
▪ He says the problem is the water table has fallen too low.
▪ In very hot weather, the workers descend tunnels that go deep into the ground to the water table.
▪ But a few bad ones-where the water table is low-can take an hour's worth of pumping.
▪ Pumping water from an aquifer lowers the water table.
■ VERB
clear
▪ The bloke with the paper hat comes round with this trolley thing to clear the tables.
▪ She shook her head, cleared the table, dropping off stuff behind the counter, talking some to her father.
▪ At that very moment, a waiter turned abruptly from clearing the next table and crashed into Loretta.
▪ He was happy to clear the table but insisted on talking nonstop as he worked.
▪ He turned to help her clear the table.
▪ The preacher pushed his plate away and Lottie rose to clear the table.
▪ Well, he seemed to have cheered up, thought Ruth, clearing the table.
▪ Now she moved from booth to booth, clearing each table.
lay
▪ For some days the note lay untouched on the table.
▪ The parcel still lay on the table, and both girls had stood up.
▪ Then I hear Gary returning and I go down to lay the table.
▪ The Constitution lay on the table for signature.
▪ The dining room was empty apart from a couple of staff members who were laying tables for breakfast.
▪ The recipe book lay on the table.
▪ I should go down and lay the table, thought Marion.
▪ Let's lay the table for tea.
set
▪ The room was dark; the only light was a splash from the anglepoise lamp set on the table beside her.
▪ A classic for only £25.95. Set a splendid table with our 24-piece, stainless-steel cutlery set from Viners.
▪ The bird collected wood, the mouse made the fire and set the table, and the sausage cooked the food.
▪ After that we set the dining table and served the lunch we had brought.
▪ A soft November swell has set the tables rattling metallically at one another across the bar.
▪ Mom put the knife where Dad always sits when she set the table.
turn
▪ Is this what women became if afforded the luxury of turned tables?
▪ That would certainly turn the tables, Blue thinks, that would certainly stand the whole business on its head.
▪ Isn't it nice to see a couple turning the tables on a double-glazing salesman?
▪ Women shrieked and ran at the sight of pistols, and men turned over tables to hide.
▪ Especially when such a rider turns the tables.
▪ That turns the tables on movie ratings.
▪ And now Lego has turned the tables and made a car.
▪ So much for turning the tables.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
drink sb under the table
▪ He was 24, highly intelligent, could drink Malc under the table and had a dry, lightning wit.
nest of tables/boxes etc
▪ Charles Forster, prosecuting, said Ganguly had stolen a nest of tables and was seen by police.
▪ The Anglo-Nubians posed like a nest of tables by the ropes.
put/lay your cards on the table
▪ If they're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate, that's good.
▪ If we want to reach an agreement, we'll have to lay all our cards on the table.
▪ They're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate.
▪ Come on, you can lay your cards on the table in this house.
▪ The new rules appear to encourage parties to lay their cards on the table and facilitate early settlements.
set the table
▪ Could you help me set the table?
▪ A soft November swell has set the tables rattling metallically at one another across the bar.
▪ But come on, set the table.
▪ She set the table and began breakfast.
▪ She ran when she made the beds, ran when she set the table.
▪ The bird collected wood, the mouse made the fire and set the table, and the sausage cooked the food.
▪ The servants setting the tables ready for supper were summarily dismissed.
▪ The smoke was broken off the cabin chimney where she had dropped it while setting the table eighteen years ago.
▪ While this cooked Baucis set the table with her trembling old hands.
the dinner table
▪ Many of the photographs are not suitable for the dinner table.
the periodic table
the top of the table
▪ In the top of the table clash, Wroxham defeated Wisbech 1-0 in front of the largest League crowd of the season, 1,011.
▪ Llanidloes beat the rain and a determined Cound side by four wickets to move clear at the top of the table.
▪ Malik's brilliant form took him to the top of the table for the tour with a total of 1,184 runs.
▪ Sir John eased himself into his great chair at the top of the table and gloomily reflected on the past.
wait tables
▪ I spent the summer waiting tables.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Table 18 shows the relationship between education and voting practices.
▪ the dining room table
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A single bed sheet makes a good-sized tablecloth for an average rectangular table and you can choose exactly the colour you want.
▪ All of it was sold from commercial operations so compact that they frequently fitted on a two-foot-square folding television table.
▪ He led them, a procession of six, to a table right next to a platform.
▪ He puts it flat on the table and opens the cover and shows me the copyright.
▪ Helium, the next element in the periodic table, contains two electrons encircling a nucleus containing two protons.
▪ I hurried back to the table and sat down.
▪ She looked down at the kitchen table.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
amendment
▪ It would imply that Labour was ill-advised in ever tabling the amendment, and in believing it to undermine the opt-out.
▪ Both Texas senators, Phil Gramm and Hutchison, voted against tabling the amendment because they opposed the measures.
▪ He anticipated that the government might table amendments to the Bill as it passes through parliament.
▪ The Opposition have tabled a cluster of amendments.
bill
▪ He anticipated that the government might table amendments to the Bill as it passes through parliament.
▪ The committee voted 17-9 to table the bill.
motion
▪ Mr. Renton I know that the hon. Gentleman tabled an early-day motion on the subject a short time ago.
▪ The move came after a vote by regents indefinitely tabling a motion to rescind their July 20 vote revising admissions policies.
proposal
▪ Baldwin tabled proposals which involved payments of £34 million a year.
question
▪ If the hon. Gentleman wants to table a question or write to me, I shall be glad to enlarge upon that.
▪ Having tabled my question two weeks ago according to the procedures of the House, I have not yet received a reply.
▪ Speaking of that, I wonder just what the hon. Gentleman had in mind when he tabled this question.
▪ I have tabled parliamentary questions about that, but I have received no proper answers.
▪ He has tabled a question on the issue for tomorrow's council meeting.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
nest of tables/boxes etc
▪ Charles Forster, prosecuting, said Ganguly had stolen a nest of tables and was seen by police.
▪ The Anglo-Nubians posed like a nest of tables by the ropes.
put/lay your cards on the table
▪ If they're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate, that's good.
▪ If we want to reach an agreement, we'll have to lay all our cards on the table.
▪ They're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate.
▪ Come on, you can lay your cards on the table in this house.
▪ The new rules appear to encourage parties to lay their cards on the table and facilitate early settlements.
the dinner table
▪ Many of the photographs are not suitable for the dinner table.
the periodic table
the top of the table
▪ In the top of the table clash, Wroxham defeated Wisbech 1-0 in front of the largest League crowd of the season, 1,011.
▪ Llanidloes beat the rain and a determined Cound side by four wickets to move clear at the top of the table.
▪ Malik's brilliant form took him to the top of the table for the tour with a total of 1,184 runs.
▪ Sir John eased himself into his great chair at the top of the table and gloomily reflected on the past.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Endlessly clear skies and lowering water tables.
▪ Nottingham Forest are planning a £500,000 bid for the big Ballyclare man; expect it to be tabled some time next week.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
table

Platen \Plat"en\, n. [F. platine, fr. plat flat. See Plate, and cf. Platin.] (Mach.)

  1. The part of a printing press which presses the paper against the type and by which the impression is made.

  2. Hence, an analogous part of a typewriter, on which the paper rests to receive an impression.

  3. The movable table of a machine tool, as a planer, on which the work is fastened, and presented to the action of the tool; -- also called table.

table

Table \Ta"ble\, n. [F., fr. L. tabula a board, tablet, a painting. Cf. Tabular, Taffrail, Tavern.]

  1. A smooth, flat surface, like the side of a board; a thin, flat, smooth piece of anything; a slab.

    A bagnio paved with fair tables of marble.
    --Sandys.

  2. A thin, flat piece of wood, stone, metal, or other material, on which anything is cut, traced, written, or painted; a tablet; pl. a memorandum book. ``The names . . . written on his tables.''
    --Chaucer.

    And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
    --Ex. xxxiv. 1.

    And stand there with your tables to glean The golden sentences.
    --Beau. & Fl.

  3. Any smooth, flat surface upon which an inscription, a drawing, or the like, may be produced. ``Painted in a table plain.''
    --Spenser.

    The opposite walls are painted by Rubens, which, with that other of the Infanta taking leave of Don Philip, is a most incomparable table.
    --Evelyn.

    St. Antony has a table that hangs up to him from a poor peasant.
    --Addison.

  4. Hence, in a great variety of applications: A condensed statement which may be comprehended by the eye in a single view; a methodical or systematic synopsis; the presentation of many items or particulars in one group; a scheme; a schedule. Specifically:

    1. (Bibliog.) A view of the contents of a work; a statement of the principal topics discussed; an index; a syllabus; a synopsis; as, a table of contents.

    2. (Chem.) A list of substances and their properties; especially, the a list of the elementary substances with their atomic weights, densities, symbols, etc.

    3. (Mach.) Any collection and arrangement in a condensed form of many particulars or values, for ready reference, as of weights, measures, currency, specific gravities, etc.; also, a series of numbers following some law, and expressing particular values corresponding to certain other numbers on which they depend, and by means of which they are taken out for use in computations; as, tables of logarithms, sines, tangents, squares, cubes, etc.; annuity tables; interest tables; astronomical tables, etc.

    4. (Palmistry) The arrangement or disposition of the lines which appear on the inside of the hand.

      Mistress of a fairer table Hath not history for fable.
      --B. Jonson.

  5. An article of furniture, consisting of a flat slab, board, or the like, having a smooth surface, fixed horizontally on legs, and used for a great variety of purposes, as in eating, writing, or working.

    We may again Give to our tables meat.
    --Shak.

    The nymph the table spread.
    --Pope.

  6. Hence, food placed on a table to be partaken of; fare; entertainment; as, to set a good table.

  7. The company assembled round a table.

    I drink the general joy of the whole table.
    --Shak.

  8. (Anat.) One of the two, external and internal, layers of compact bone, separated by diplo["e], in the walls of the cranium.

  9. (Arch.) A stringcourse which includes an offset; esp., a band of stone, or the like, set where an offset is required, so as to make it decorative. See Water table.

  10. (Games)

    1. The board on the opposite sides of which backgammon and draughts are played.

    2. One of the divisions of a backgammon board; as, to play into the right-hand table.

    3. pl. The games of backgammon and of draughts. [Obs.]
      --Chaucer.

      This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice, That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice.
      --Shak.

  11. (Glass Manuf.) A circular plate of crown glass.

    A circular plate or table of about five feet diameter weighs on an average nine pounds.
    --Ure.

  12. (Jewelry) The upper flat surface of a diamond or other precious stone, the sides of which are cut in angles.

  13. (Persp.) A plane surface, supposed to be transparent and perpendicular to the horizon; -- called also perspective plane.

  14. (Mach.) The part of a machine tool on which the work rests and is fastened.

    Bench table, Card table, Communion table, Lord's table, etc. See under Bench, Card, etc.

    Raised table (Arch. & Sculp.), a raised or projecting member of a flat surface, large in proportion to the projection, and usually rectangular, -- especially intended to receive an inscription or the like.

    Roller table (Horology), a flat disk on the arbor of the balance of a watch, holding the jewel which rolls in and out of the fork at the end of the lever of the escapement.

    Round table. See Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

    Table anvil, a small anvil to be fastened to a table for use in making slight repairs.

    Table base. (Arch.) Same as Water table.

    Table bed, a bed in the form of a table.

    Table beer, beer for table, or for common use; small beer.

    Table bell, a small bell to be used at table for calling servants.

    Table cover, a cloth for covering a table, especially at other than mealtimes.

    Table diamond, a thin diamond cut with a flat upper surface.

    Table linen, linen tablecloth, napkins, and the like.

    Table money (Mil. or Naut.), an allowance sometimes made to officers over and above their pay, for table expenses.

    Table rent (O. Eng. Law), rent paid to a bishop or religious, reserved or appropriated to his table or housekeeping.
    --Burrill.

    Table shore (Naut.), a low, level shore.

    Table talk, conversation at table, or at meals.

    Table talker, one who talks at table.

    Table tipping, Table turning, certain movements of tables, etc., attributed by some to the agency of departed spirits, and by others to the development of latent vital or spriritual forces, but more commonly ascribed to the muscular force of persons in connection with the objects moved, or to physical force applied otherwise.

    Tables of a girder or Tables of a chord (Engin.), the upper and lower horizontal members.

    To lay on the table, in parliamentary usage, to lay, as a report, motion, etc., on the table of the presiding officer, -- that is, to postpone the consideration of, by a vote; -- also called to table . It is a tactic often used with the intention of postponing consideration of a motion indefinitely, that is, to kill the motion.

    To serve tables (Script.), to provide for the poor, or to distribute provisions for their wants.
    --Acts vi. 2.

    To turn the tables, to change the condition or fortune of contending parties; -- a metaphorical expression taken from the vicissitudes of fortune in gaming.

    Twelve tables (Rom. Antiq.), a celebrated body of Roman laws, framed by decemvirs appointed 450 years before Christ, on the return of deputies or commissioners who had been sent to Greece to examine into foreign laws and institutions. They consisted partly of laws transcribed from the institutions of other nations, partly of such as were altered and accommodated to the manners of the Romans, partly of new provisions, and mainly, perhaps, of laws and usages under their ancient kings.
    --Burrill.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
table

late 12c., "board, slab, plate," from Old French table "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and late Old English tabele "writing tablet, gaming table," from Germanic *tabal (cognates: Dutch tafel, Danish tavle, Old High German zabel "board, plank," German Tafel). Both the French and Germanic words are from Latin tabula "a board, plank; writing table; list, schedule; picture, painted panel," originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for games (source also of Spanish tabla, Italian tavola), of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the board."\n

\nThe sense of "piece of furniture with the flat top and legs" first recorded c.1300 (the usual Latin word for this was mensa (see mensa); Old English writers used bord (see board (n.1)). Especially the table at which people eat, hence "food placed upon a table" (c.1400 in English). The meaning "arrangement of numbers or other figures on a tabular surface for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (as in table of contents, mid-15c.).\n

\nFigurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon (in Old and Middle English the game was called tables). Table talk "familiar conversation around a table" is attested from 1560s, translating Latin colloquia mensalis. Table-manners is from 1824. Table-hopping is first recorded 1943. The adjectival phrase under-the-table "hidden from view" is recorded from 1949; to be under the table "passed out from excess drinking" is recorded from 1913. Table tennis "ping-pong" is recorded from 1887. Table-rapping in spiritualism, supposedly an effect of supernatural powers, is from 1853.

table

mid-15c., "enter into a list, form into a list or catalogue," also "provide with food," from table (n.). In parliamentary sense, 1718, originally "to lay on the (speaker's) table for discussion;" but in U.S. political jargon it has chiefly the sense of "to postpone indefinitely" (1866) via notion of "lay aside for future consideration." Related: Tabled; tabling.\n

Wiktionary
table

n. 1 Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses. 2 # An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs. vb. 1 To put on a table. 2 (context British Canada NZ English) To propose for discussion (from ''to put on the table''). 3 (context US English) To hold back to a later time; to postpone. 4 To tabulate; to put into a table. 5 To delineate, as on a table; to represent, as in a picture. 6 To supply with food; to feed. 7 (context carpentry English) To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf. 8 To enter upon the docket. 9 (context nautical English) To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the bolt-rope.

WordNet
table
  1. n. a set of data arranged in rows and columns; "see table 1" [syn: tabular array]

  2. a piece of furniture having a smooth flat top that is usually supported by one or more vertical legs; "it was a sturdy table"

  3. a piece of furniture with tableware for a meal laid out on it; "I reserved a table at my favorite restaurant"

  4. flat tableland with steep edges; "the tribe was relatively safe on the mesa but they had to descend into the valley for water" [syn: mesa]

  5. a company of people assembled at a table for a meal or game; "he entertained the whole table with his witty remarks"

  6. food or meals in general; "she sets a fine table"; "room and board" [syn: board]

table

v. hold back to a later time; "let's postpone the exam" [syn: postpone, prorogue, hold over, put over, shelve, set back, defer, remit, put off]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Table

Table may refer to:

  • Table (database)
  • Table (furniture)
  • Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns
  • Table (landform)
  • Table (parliamentary procedure)
  • Tables (board game)
  • Calligra Tables, a spreadsheet application
  • The Table, a volcanic tuya in British Columbia, Canada
  • Table, surface of the sound board (music) of a string instrument
  • Al-Ma'ida, the fifth sura of the Qur'an, usually translated as “The Table”.
Table (information)

A table is a means of arranging data in rows and columns. The use of tables is pervasive throughout all communication, research and data analysis. Tables appear in print media, handwritten notes, computer software, architectural ornamentation, traffic signs and many other places. The precise conventions and terminology for describing tables varies depending on the context. Further, tables differ significantly in variety, structure, flexibility, notation, representation and use. In books and technical articles, tables are typically presented apart from the main text in numbered and captioned floating blocks.

Table (parliamentary procedure)

In parliamentary procedure, the use of table, as a verb, has two different and contradictory meanings:

  • In the United States, to "table" usually means to postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion.
  • In the rest of the English-speaking world, such as in the United Kingdom and Canada, to "table" means to begin consideration (or reconsideration) of a proposal.

Motions which use the word "table" have specific meanings and functions, depending on the parliamentary authority used. The meaning of "table" also depends on the context in which it is used.

Table (landform)

A table is a hill, flank of a mountain, or mountain, that has a flat top.

This landform has numerous names in addition to "table", including:

  • Tuya
  • Tepui
  • Mesa
  • Potrero
  • Butte
  • Plateau
  • Terrace
  • Table
    • Table hill
    • Table-topped hill
    • Table mountain
    • Tableland
Table (furniture)

A table is an item of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, used as a surface for working at or on which to place things. Some common types of table are the dining room table, which is used for seated persons to eat meals; the coffee table, which is a low table used in living rooms to display items or serve refreshments; and the bedside table, which is used to place an alarm clock and a lamp.

Common design elements include:

  • top surfaces of various shapes, including rectangular, square, rounded or semi-circular
  • legs arranged in two or more similar pairs. It usually has four legs.
  • several geometries of folding table that can be collapsed into a smaller volume (e.g., a TV tray, which is a portable, folding table on a stand)
  • heights ranging up and down from the most common range, often reflecting the height of chairs or bar stools used as seating for people making use of a table, as for eating or performing various manipulations of objects resting on a table
  • presence or absence of drawers, shelves or other areas for storing items
  • expansion of the table surface by insertion of leaves or locking hinged drop leaf sections into a horizontal position (this is particularly common for dining tables)
Table (database)

A table is a collection of related data held in a structured format within a database. It consists of columns, and rows.

In relational databases and flat file databases, a table is a set of data elements (values) using a model of vertical columns (identifiable by name) and horizontal rows, the cell being the unit where a row and column intersect. A table has a specified number of columns, but can have any number of rows. Each row is identified by one or more values appearing in a particular column subset. The columns subset which uniquely identifies a row is called the primary key.

"Table" is another term for "relation"; although there is the difference in that a table is usually a multiset (bag) of rows where a relation is a set and does not allow duplicates. Besides the actual data rows, tables generally have associated with them some metadata, such as constraints on the table or on the values within particular columns.

The data in a table does not have to be physically stored in the database. Views also function as relational tables, but their data are calculated at query time. External tables (in Informix or Oracle, for example)

Usage examples of "table".

On the dressing table, ably guarded by a dark Regency armchair cushioned in yet another floral, sat an assemblage of antique silver-hair accessories and crystal perfume flacons, the grouping flanked by two small lamps, everything centered around a gold Empire vanity mirror.

He picked up a knife from the table and twirled it absently in his fingers.

Into it he had crammed a chair and minuscule table, desk-model accessor, and the accumulated reference materials and data of years of research.

Satisfied, Pekka stopped the chant and looked over toward the other table, where the other acorn should have shown similar growth.

She hurried over to the other table, wondering what was wrong with the acorn on it.

One is never certain as to the respectability of his neighbor at the table, and it is well to be over-cautious in forming acquaintanceships at such places.

He justly observes, that in the recent changes, both religions had been alternately disgraced by the seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those votaries of the reigning purple, who could pass, without a reason, and without a blush, from the church to the temple, and from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred table of the Christians.

I saw, sitting before a table, a woman already somewhat advanced in age, with two young girls and two boys, but I looked in vain for the actress, whom Don Sancio Pico at last presented to me in the shape of one of the two boys, who was remarkably handsome and might have been seventeen.

With Delilah and her father sharing the kitchen and Darla waiting tables, Addle had found herself wandering around useless.

In the lounge, Data spotted Darryl Adin sitting alone at a table near the viewports, looking out at the stars.

Publicans prosecuted and convicted from 1815 to 1818, for adulterating Beer with illegal Ingredients, and for mixing Table Beer with their Strong Beer.

Brewers prosecuted and convicted from 1813 to 1819, for adulterating Strong Beer with Table Beer.

Mr Parmenter, as he handed the aerogram across the big table littered with maps, plans and drawings of localities terrestrial and celestial.

As it lay on the table before him, he realized that it was nothing but a common aerolite, with the appearance of black slag.

The aeronaut, his brow adorned with sticking-plaster, was sitting in a chair by the table, while the doctor was bandaging his splinted forearm.