table

Alternative forms

• tyebble (Geordie)

Etymology

A table (furniture)

A table of characters in the Arabic alphabet

From Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board. Doublet of tabula and tavla.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tāʹbəl, IPA^(key): /ˈteɪbl̩/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [ˈt(ʰ)eɪbɫ̩]

    • Audio (Received Pronunciation):

      (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈtʰeɪb(ə)ɫ]

    • Audio (General American):

      (file)

  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈtʰæɪbəɫ]

    • Audio (General Australian):

      (file)

  • (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈtʰeːb(ə)ɫ]
    • (dialectal) IPA^(key): [ˈtɛːb(ə)ɫ]
• Hyphenation: ta‧ble
• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

Noun

table (plural tables)

1. Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses.
   1. An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs.

      Set that dish on the table over there, please.

      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.

      • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

        A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].

   2. The board or table-like furniture on which a game is played, such as snooker, billiards, or draughts.
   3. A flat tray which can be used as a table.
   4. A supply of food or entertainment.

      The baron kept a fine table and often held large banquets.

   5. A service of Holy Communion.
   6. (backgammon) One half of a backgammon board, which is divided into the inner and outer table.
   7. A wide, flat obstacle for a horse to jump over.
2. A group of people at a table, for example, for a meal, meeting or game.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 278, column 1:

     Alas poore Yorick […] VVhere be your Jibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs? Your flaſhes of Merriment that were wont to ſet the Table on a Rore?

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

   1. (poker, metonymically) The lineup of players at a given table.

      That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event

   2. (roleplaying games, metonymically) A group of players meeting regularly to play a campaign.
   3. (waitstaff, metonymically) A group of diners at a given table or tables.

      Table 9 wants another round of beers.

      John always gets the best tips because he gets the best tables! It's not fair!

3. A two-dimensional presentation of data.
   1. A matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns.
      • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 69:

        I’m using mathesis — a universal science of measurement and order …
        And there is also taxinomia a principle of classification and ordered tabulation.
        Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …
        Western reason had entered the age of judgement.

   2. A collection of arithmetic calculations arranged in a table, such as multiplications in a multiplication table.

      The children were practising multiplication tables.

      Don’t you know your tables?

      Here is a table of natural logarithms.

   3. (computing, chiefly databases) A lookup table, most often a set of vectors.
   4. (sports) A visual representation of a classification of teams or individuals based on their success over a predetermined period.
      • 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:

        On this evidence they will certainly face tougher tests, as a depleted Newcastle side seemed to bask in the relative security of being ninth in the table.

4. (music) The top of a stringed instrument, particularly a member of the violin family: the side of the instrument against which the strings vibrate.
5. The flat topmost facet of a cut diamond.

Verb

table (third-person singular simple present tables, present participle tabling, simple past and past participle tabled)

2. To tabulate; to put into a table or grid. [from 15th c.]

   to table fines

4. (now rare) To supply (a guest, client etc.) with food at a table; to feed. [from 15th c.]
   • 'April 13 1638, Henry Wotton, letter to John Milton

     At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni

6. (obsolete) To delineate; to represent, as in a picture; to depict. [17th–19th c.]
   • c. 1607, Francis Bacon, letter to Tobie Matthew

     tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation

8. (non-US) To put on the table of a commission or legislative assembly; to propose for formal discussion or consideration, to put on the agenda. [from 17th c.]
   • 2019 January 16, Heather Stewart, Daniel Boffey, The Guardian:

     In a raucous Commons, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he had tabled a formal motion of confidence in the government, backed by other opposition leaders, which MPs would vote on on Wednesday.

10. (chiefly US) To remove from the agenda, to postpone dealing with; to shelve (to indefinitely postpone consideration or discussion of something). [from 19th c.]

    The legislature tabled the amendment, so they will not be discussing it until later.

    The motion was tabled, ensuring that it would not be taken up until a later date.

12. (carpentry, obsolete) To join (pieces of timber) together using coaks. [18th–19th c.]
14. To put on a table. [from 19th c.]
    • 1833 Thomas Carlyle, letter to his Mother, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson

      [A]fter some clatter offered us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again.

15. (poker, colloquial) To show one's cards face-up, especially during showdown.
17. (nautical) To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the bolt-rope.

See also

• tabula rasa

References

• table (parliamentary procedure) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ablet, Taleb, belta, blate, bleat

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tabl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French table, from Latin tabula (“tablet”). Doublet of tôle and taule.

Etymology 2

From the verb tabler.

Further reading

• “table”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• balte, bêlât

Alternative forms

• tabel, tabil, tabul, tabyl, tabyle, tabyll, tabulle, tabele, tabill

Etymology

From a combination of Old French table and Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula, both from Latin tabula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːbəl/, /ˈtaːblə/

Noun

table (plural tables or (early) tablen)

1. A table (furniture with a level surface):
   1. The top of a table (flat surface of a table for use)
   2. (figurative) A location where one's soul receives nutrition.
   3. (figurative) A serving or portion of food.
2. A level writing surface:
   1. A tablet, especially a portable one for writing on.
   2. An inscribed memorial, dedication, message, or other text; a sign or monument.
   3. (biblical) The physical Ten Commandments handed down from heaven.
3. Any (relatively) level surface:
   1. A wooden pole or board (especially behind an altar).
   2. The board of a board game (often divided in two).
   3. A level, floor or storey (of a building)
   4. Such a surface used for painting.
   5. (rare) A flat piece of arable land.
   6. (rare, palmistry) A portion of the hand surrounded by palm lines.
4. A glossary or almanac; a reference work or chart of data.
5. A board game similar to backgammon.
6. (rare) A flat bone or fused set of bones.

Etymology

From Latin tabula.

Noun

table oblique singular, f (oblique plural tables, nominative singular table, nominative plural tables)

1. table (furniture)

Etymology

From Greek τάβλι (távli).

Noun

table f pl (plural only)

1. plural of tablă
2. backgammon

Verb

table

1. inflection of tablar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative