Dictionary

tea and toaster en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From tea and toast + -er.

Meanings

1. (informal) A person, usually elderly and frail, with a diet lacking in nutrition.
   • The patients with inadequate diet admitted to ingesting a diet usually devoid of folate-rich food such as liver, kidney, and vegetables other than potatoes. Several probably were "tea and toasters." 1964, B. A. Cooper, L. Lowenstein, “Relative Folate Deficiency of Erythrocytes in Pernicious Anemia and its Correction with Cyanocobalamin,”, in Blood, volume 24, page 505:
   • Again, if Father San Browne, tea and toaster to that quaintesttest of yarnspinners is Padre Don Bruno, […] 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 50:
   • Older people with poor dietary habits ("tea and toasters") may develop iron deficiency. 2003, Robert K. Murray et al., Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 586:

Forms

Relateds

ham-and-egger · tea and toast syndrome