cates

Etymology

Compare acates, and see cater.

noun

  1. (archaic) Provisions; food; viands; especially, luxurious food; delicacies; dainties.
    I had rather live / With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, / Than feed on cates and have him talk to me / In any summer house in Christendom. a. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, scene 1, lines 155–158
    Hath any rival glutton got the start, / And beat him in his own luxurious art; / Bought cates for which Apicius could not pay, / Or drest old dainties in a newer way? 1764, Charles Churchill, The Times
    I tempted his blood and his flesh, / Hid in roses my mesh, / Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth— / Still he kept to his filth! 1855, Robert Browning, “Instans Tyrannus”, in Men and Women, lines 19–22

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