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decaffeinated coffee

decaffeinated coffee

3 2.4
A coffee with most or all of the caffeine removed
  • noun
  • /ˌdiːˈkæfɪˌneɪtɪd ˈkɔːfi/
translation icon : café descafeinado
  • Many people drink decaffeinated coffee to enjoy the taste without the caffeine jitters.
  • teaspoon of decaffeinated coffee
  • instant decaffeinated coffee

Really decaffeinated coffee is not as bad as perhaps we've been led to believe by sort of thinking about it's very cheap coffee.

Examples

  • He smiled when he took the stirrer out of his decaffeinated coffee.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Most choices are also available in decaffeinated coffee.

    Blog text (13)
  • "A few minutes after 9, it was a simple matter to pay for their meal, find a booth near the back of the restaurant, and order some decaffeinated coffee.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Anyway, it was all very casual, and there'd be beer, cider, or decaffeinated coffee depending on whose living room they met in that week.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • If you ask your coffeehouse server which of the two cups of coffee on the counter contains the decaffeinated coffee, and the server tells you that it's the one on the left, what are you to make of this?

    Academic text (1998)
  • They've ordered two coffees, hers decaf, but as Tori drinks, she knows that even with decaffeinated coffee, she will be awake long after Elliott.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • The phone rang at a little after seven as Dubinsky was finishing his microwaved frozen Salisbury steak with potatoes and a dish of vanilla ice cream washed down by decaffeinated coffee.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • After dinner, I prefer to have a cup of decaffeinated coffee to help me relax.

  • The café offers a variety of beverages, including decaffeinated coffee for customers who want to limit their caffeine intake.

Synonyms

decaf
vsdecaffeinated coffee
  • Informal
79 1.7

Coffee with most of the caffeine removed

is the fuller more formal expression for the same coffee
Sanka
vsdecaffeinated coffee
  • US
3 8.0

A brand of instant coffee with no caffeine often used to mean any decaffeinated coffee

is the general term for coffee with most or all caffeine removed

How Caffeinated

espresso
88 3.2
decaffeinated coffee
3 2.4

Surface Forms

Morphology

decaffeinated + coffee

The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'decaffeinated' (having had most caffeine removed) modifies 'coffee', so its meaning as coffee without (or with very little) caffeine is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the MWE.

Etymology

The noun decaffeinated coffee comes from the word decaffeinated, meaning 'without caffeine', plus coffee. People discovered ways to take the caffeine out of the beans so the drink kept its taste but not the wake-up effect. So, the term means 'coffee with most or all caffeine removed'.