Dictionary

Chinese menu en · NOUN

Etymology

From the practice of some Chinese restaurants which, for a fixed price, instruct the customer to make selections such as “one from Column A, two from Column B, one from Column C”, where the columns may contain, for example, a selection of soups, appetizers, and entrees.

Meanings

1. A set of choices from which the user or customer makes multiple selections, specifically one or more choices from each of two or more distinct categories.
   • Many people who consider themselves to be liberally educated have undertaken study in half a dozen fields from a Chinese menu of subjects. 1997, Samuel M. Natale, Mark B. Fenton, Business Education and Training, page 92:
   • Throughout American higher education, Western Civilization courses tempered electives and various Chinese menus of distribution requirements. 1994, Philip G. Altbach, Robert Oliver Berdahl, Patricia J. Gumport, Higher education in American society:
   • Each camper picked from a Chinese menu of available activities: one from the various field sports; one from the pool activities list; and two from a wide selection of arts and crafts classes.
   • Cheney's man, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, reportedly tried to force a “Chinese menu” of even wilder assertions into the first draft of the UN speech. 2011, Kenneth O'Reilly, Holy Cow 2000: The Strange Election of George W. Bush:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Chinese, menu.

Forms

Relateds

a little from column A, a little from column B