over coffee
4
2.8
- idiom
:
mientras tomamos café
- "We knew we had an important individual there," Fleming recalled over coffee in the museum café this past spring.
And my VP of sales, you know, over coffee would tell me stuff like, you know, our West Coast sales Rep is just just lazy.
- And my VP of sales, you know, over coffee would tell me stuff like, you know, our West Coast sales Rep is just just lazy.
Examples
-
Blaise, the attractive widow he planned to marry come the fall, was lingering over coffee.
Fiction book (2000) -
During long hours over coffee, they shared ideas.
Fiction book (1993) -
I really want to talk to this guy, and what better way than over coffee?
Fiction book (1993) -
If you ever want to swap stories over coffee, let me know.
Blog text (13) -
Dessert had been served, and the guests were lingering over coffee.
Fiction book (2000) -
Many music teachers receive informal updates from teaching colleagues over coffee in the lounge.
Academic text (1994) -
We sat and talked over coffee about her experience of Judaism and the Jewish social world in Copenhagen.
Academic text (1999) -
But, inevitably, languorous mornings over coffee and strudel gave way to the alarm clock and the metronome.
Fiction book (1991) -
In the booths, men and women in checkered shirts and dresses nodded, half-asleep, over coffee.
Fiction book (2002) -
We discussed our travel plans over coffee at the café down the street.
How Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
over + coffee
The meaning 'while having coffee together' is directly compositional: 'over' in the sense 'during' combined with 'coffee' yields 'during/while having coffee'. This is a common English prepositional pattern (compare 'over dinner/lunch') and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase over coffee comes from the simple picture of people sitting together with cups of coffee and talking. The word over here means 'during' and coffee is the drink people share, so over coffee means something happened 'while having coffee', often in a relaxed or friendly meeting.