sandwich plate
- noun
- For lunch, she ordered the sandwich plate, which came with two types of sandwiches and a small basket of chips.
Examples
-
The buffet included a lavish sandwich plate decorated with colorful garnishes and a side of salad.
-
"Good King Wenceslas" pipes through the manor; smiling, ALFRED sets the sandwich plate alongside a steaming kettle on a sterling silver tea service.
Fiction book (1992) -
At the picnic, we enjoyed a delicious sandwich plate filled with various sandwiches and fresh pickles.
Synonyms
Two slices of bread with food like meat or cheese between them for a meal
How Filling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and literally built from 'sandwich' (the food item) and 'plate' (a dish/serving), i.e. a plate with a sandwich or a serving of sandwich(es). This simple noun+noun compositional pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Sandwich plate comes from simple café practice: a sandwich placed on a plate is served with small sides like salad or pickles. That's why a sandwich plate means 'a sandwich plus side items' served as a small meal.