Word.ws English Dictionary

tea party

tea party noun: a semiformal afternoon social gathering at which tea, sandwiches and cakes are served.

Noun (1)

tea party (plural tea parties)

  1. A semiformal afternoon social gathering at which tea, sandwiches and cakes are served.
    • On January 23, MTR Elizabeth Line held an office-based tea party at which colleagues were encouraged to donate home-baked goods. It provided staff with an opportunity to take time out of their busy schedules and reminded everyone to take care of their mental health and wellbeing.2020 July 1, “Case Studies: Brew Monday”, in Rail, page 59
  2. A type of imaginative playing in which children gather with each other or their dolls to mimic having a real tea party or other formal meal, often without any food at all.
  3. (figuratively) An interaction characterized by a high degree of courtesy, delicacy, deference, and avoidance of conflict.
    • Trials marked by strife, belligerent behaviour, unwarranted personal attacks, and other forms of disruptive and discourteous conduct are antithetical to the peaceful and orderly resolution of disputes we strive to achieve. By the same token, trials are not — nor are they meant to be — tea parties....2018 June 1, Michael Moldaver, “Groia v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 27”, in CanLII, retrieved 17 Apr 2021
    Synonyms:
    pink tea

Noun (2) capitalized: Tea Party

Tea Party (plural Tea Parties)

  1. Any of various independent, fiscally conservative political groups in the twenty-first-century United States.

Proper noun capitalized: Tea Party

the Tea Party

  1. Various independent, fiscally conservative political groups in the twenty-first-century United States, taken as a whole.

tea party meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

tea party in Tamil

semi-formal social gathering
தேநீர் விருந்து tēnīr viruntu

tea party in Urdu

چائے کی ضیافت

tea party in Bengali

একটি কল্পনাভিত্তিক খেলা, প্রায়ই কোনো খাবার ছাড়াই, সূক্ষ্মতা

tea party in Kannada

ಸಂತೋಷ ಕೂಟ, ಸತ್ಕಾರ ಕೂಟ
More languagesFewer languages
tea party in Vietnamese
tiệc trà

Synonyms of tea party

Forms of tea party

pluraltea parties
pluralTea Parties

Origin of tea party

In reference to the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxation without representation.

Words formed from tea party

Questions about tea party

What does tea party mean?
Tea party means a semiformal afternoon social gathering at which tea, sandwiches and cakes are served.
What is tea party in Tamil?
Tea party in Tamil is தேநீர் விருந்து (tēnīr viruntu). See Tea party meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tea party?
Tea party can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of tea party?
The plural of tea party is tea parties.

Words near tea party in the dictionary

  1. tea pad
  2. tea pads
  3. Tea Partier
  4. Tea Partiers
  5. tea parties
  6. tea party
  7. tea pet
  8. tea pets
  9. tea plant
  10. tea plants
  11. tea pot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tea party (page history and authors); Tea Party (page history and authors); tea party (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tea party (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tea party (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tea party.wav.

Cite this entry: “tea party.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tea_party. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.