Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - tea

(teas) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Tea is a drink made by adding hot water to tea leaves or tea bags. Many people add milk to the drink and some add sugar. ...a cup of tea... Would you like some tea?... Four or five men were drinking tea from flasks. N-MASS • A cup of tea can be referred to as a tea. Would anybody like a tea or coffee? N-COUNT 2. The chopped dried leaves of the plant that tea is made from is referred to as tea. ...a packet of tea... N-MASS 3. Tea is a meal some people eat in the late afternoon. It consists of food such as sandwiches and cakes, with tea to drink. (BRIT) I’m doing the sandwiches for tea... N-VAR see also afternoon tea, high tea 4. Some people refer to the main meal that they eat in the early part of the evening as tea. (BRIT) At five o’clock he comes back for his tea. N-VAR 5. If you say that someone or something is not your cup of tea, you mean that they are not the kind of person or thing that you like. Politics was not his cup of tea... PHRASE: v-link PHR, usu with brd-neg