tea

noun

• 1a hot drink made by infusing the dried crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water: Katherine sipped her tea
• the dried leaves used to make tea: tea from India and Ceylon [count noun]:tea bags containing teas from selected estates
• [usually with modifier] a drink made from the infused leaves, fruits, or flowers of plants other than tea:herbal tea [count noun]:fruit teas
• West Indian any hot drink, for example, coffee or cocoa.

• 2 (also tea plant) the evergreen shrub or small tree which produces tea leaves, native to southern and eastern Asia and grown as a major cash crop.

  • Camellia sinensis, family Theaceae

• 3chiefly British a light afternoon meal consisting typically of tea to drink, sandwiches, and cakes: they were about to take afternoon tea [count noun]:picnic teas
• British a cooked evening meal: fish and chips for tea [count noun]:the food was nothing like the teas his wife cookedSee also high tea.
• West Indian breakfast, typically consisting of a hot drink and bread.

verb (teas, teaing, teaed or tea'd /tiːd/)

• drink tea or take afternoon tea:I teaed with Professor Herron