high table
1
7.5
- noun
- Jargon
:
mesa alta
- Non-meat dishes are served first at the high table since the Bishop will not eat red meat.
What, what image should high table conjure in my mind?
- What, what image should high table conjure in my mind?
Examples
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Sometime in the twenties, in a college at Cambridge, the poet Housman, at the high table, asked Andre Gide why France had no great poets.
Fiction book (1995) -
Now, at the high table, the second course begins.
Blog text (6) -
Small bowls, each garnished with carnations and roses, are set at each place at the high table.
Blog text (6) -
No one else in the hall made any pretense of not watching the encounter—or listening, if they sat close enough to the high table.
Fiction book (1992) -
At mealtimes in the great hall, she took to eating at the far end of the high table; yet over the clinking glasses and silverware, the tense voices and rustling clothes, Biantha heard Marten and Vathre speaking easily with each other.
Fiction book (2001) -
At the college dinner, only the professors and selected guests were seated at the high table.
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The high table was adorned with fine china and flowers for the special banquet.
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During the ceremony, all the important guests were invited to sit at the high table overlooking the audience.
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is partially compositional: a learner who knows 'high' and 'table' can infer a table that is elevated or associated with importance. However, the specific institutional/cultural meaning (a raised, reserved table for senior members at college banquets) is specialized and not fully predictable from the words alone, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
High table comes from old dining halls where the high table sat on a raised platform so senior people and guests could sit above the others and be seen. So, it now means the special table for 'senior members' or 'important guests'.