table

Etymology

From Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board. Doublet of tabula.

noun

1. Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses.
   1. An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs.
      Set that dish on the table over there, please.
      He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
      A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […]. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess
   2. The board or table-like furniture on which a game is played, such as snooker, billiards, or draughts.
   3. A flat tray which can be used as a table.
   4. A supply of food or entertainment.
      The baron kept a fine table and often held large banquets.
   5. A service of Holy Communion.
   6. (backgammon) One half of a backgammon board, which is divided into the inner and outer table.
2. A group of people at a table, for example, for a meal, meeting or game.
   1. (poker, metonymically) The lineup of players at a given table.
      That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event
   2. (roleplaying games, metonymically) A group of players meeting regularly to play a campaign.
   3. (waitstaff, metonymically) A group of diners at a given table or tables.
      Table 9 wants another round of beers.
      John always gets the best tips because he gets the best tables! It's not fair!
3. A two-dimensional presentation of data.
   1. A matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns.
      I’m using mathesis — a universal science of measurement and order … And there is also taxinomia a principle of classification and ordered tabulation. Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables … Western reason had entered the age of judgement. 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, Totem Books, Icon Books, page 69
   2. A collection of arithmetic calculations arranged in a table, such as multiplications in a multiplication table.
      The children were practising multiplication tables.
      Don’t you know your tables?
      Here is a table of natural logarithms.
   3. (computing, chiefly databases) A lookup table, most often a set of vectors.
   4. (sports) A visual representation of a classification of teams or individuals based on their success over a predetermined period.
      On this evidence they will certainly face tougher tests, as a depleted Newcastle side seemed to bask in the relative security of being ninth in the table. April 10, 2011, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport
4. (music) The top of a stringed instrument, particularly a member of the violin family: the side of the instrument against which the strings vibrate.
5. The flat topmost facet of a cut diamond.

verb

1. To tabulate; to put into a table or grid.
   to table fines
2. (now rare) To supply (a guest, client etc.) with food at a table; to feed.
   'April 13 1638, Henry Wotton, letter to John Milton At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni
3. (obsolete) To delineate; to represent, as in a picture; to depict.
   c. 1607, Francis Bacon, letter to Tobie Matthew tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation
4. (non-US) To put on the table of a commission or legislative assembly; to propose for formal discussion or consideration, to put on the agenda.
   In a raucous Commons, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he had tabled a formal motion of confidence in the government, backed by other opposition leaders, which MPs would vote on on Wednesday. 16 January 2019, Heather Stewart, Daniel Boffey, The Guardian
5. (chiefly US) To remove from the agenda, to postpone dealing with; to shelve (to indefinitely postpone consideration or discussion of something).
   The legislature tabled the amendment, so they will not be discussing it until later.
   The motion was tabled, ensuring that it would not be taken up until a later date.
6. (carpentry, obsolete) To join (pieces of timber) together using coaks.
7. To put on a table.
   1833 Thomas Carlyle, letter to his Mother, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson [A]fter some clatter offered us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again.
8. (nautical) To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the bolt-rope.