morning tea

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

morning tea (countable and uncountable, plural morning teas)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) A small meal or snack eaten between breakfast and lunch; a period of time set aside for this purpose, taken as a break from schoolwork, work, a conference, etc.
   • 1993 December, AUUGN: AUUG Inc. Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 6, page 53,

     Thursday usually opens with a keynote session prior to morning tea and then breaks to stream sessions before and after lunch. […] The only thing it doesn′t include is breakfast, and many delegates just wait for our scrumptious morning teas anyway.

   • 2000, Maggie Alderson, Pants On Fire, Penguin Books Australia, unnumbered page,

     ‘You know what this means, don′t you?’ said Maxine, smiling broadly.

     ‘No?’ I wondered if I had to pack up my office straight away.

     ‘You have to buy morning tea.’

     ‘What?’

     ‘Morning tea. A cake. A big cake for all of us. […] ’

   • 2004, Coralie Mathews, Healthy Children: A Guide For Child Care, 2nd Edition, Elsevier, Australia, page 187,

     He rushes in every day, greeting the staff and other children, and is busy with a variety of activities until morning tea time. He helps pack up the tables that are needed for morning tea and wipes them over before going to wash his hands. Morning tea comes on a trolley and Almeido happily places platters of fresh and dried fruit and individual bowls on each table.

Related terms

• elevenses

Translations

a light meal or snack taken mid morning after breakfast and before the midday meal

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 早茶 (zh) (zǎochá)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: aamutee
• Maori: paramanawa
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sabah çayı

See also

• afternoon tea

Anagrams

• orange mint