Barmecide feast en · NOUN
Etymology
From a tale in the Arabian Nights in which a rich man serves a beggar an imaginary banquet; see Barmecide.
Meanings
-
A meal with very little or no food
Arthur Rimbaud, in a hotel dining room where, though indulging in a Barmecide feast before empty plates and glasses, he evinces the most evident signs of gastronomic enjoyment.
1935, Milton H Stansbury, “The Surrealists”, in French Novelists of Today, University of Pennsylvania Press, pages 121-136:[H]e decided that his loved one was on the point of starvation. No human being, he held, could exist on such Barmecide feasts.
1915, P.G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in Something Fresh, London: Hutchinson, page 122:
- Something that promises much but delivers nothing; an illusion.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barmecide feasts | Number=Plur | lexicographic |