tea and toaster

See also: tea-and-toaster

English

Alternative forms

• tea-and-toaster

Etymology

From tea and toast + -er.

Pronunciation

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Noun

tea and toaster (plural tea and toasters)

1. (informal, chiefly medicine) A person, usually elderly and frail, with a diet lacking in nutrition.
   • 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 50:

     Again, if Father San Browne, tea and toaster to that quaintesttest of yarnspinners is Padre Don Bruno, […]

   • 1964, B. A. Cooper, L. Lowenstein, “Relative Folate Deficiency of Erythrocytes in Pernicious Anemia and its Correction with Cyanocobalamin,”, in Blood, volume 24, page 505:

     The patients with inadequate diet admitted to ingesting a diet usually devoid of folate-rich food such as liver, kidney, and vegetables other than potatoes. Several probably were "tea and toasters."

   • 2003, Robert K. Murray et al., Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 586:

     Older people with poor dietary habits ("tea and toasters") may develop iron deficiency.

Related terms

• tea and toast syndrome

See also

• ham-and-egger