Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small elevator used to convey food or other goods from one floor of a building to another.
- noun A portable serving stand or table.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small
lift /elevator used to movefood etc. from onefloor of abuilding to another. - noun A
portable table used for serving.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dumbwaiter.
Examples
-
This device is more commonly known as the dumbwaiter, and later became an important means of delivering garbage to the basement of apartment buildings built in the early 1900s.
unknown title 2009
-
The food ordered from behind the counter comes up from the kitchen below on a dumbwaiter, which is very exciting for anyone who grew up watching Webster (but wasn‘t rich enough to have an actualdumbwaiter themselves).
-
But both, to gauge by the squalid setting, by the way they spring to attention at the sounding of a disembodied voice that issues from the dumbwaiter, are low men on the totem pole.
James Scarborough: Hollywood Fringe: The Dumb Waiter, Vespertine Productions & Girl Band in the Men's Room, Dirty Blonde Productions James Scarborough 2011
-
As Mr. Tarrant told me in a 2007 interview, he heard, through a dumbwaiter door to the galley, Callaghan speaking in low, grave tones about the battle plan he would use that night off Guadalcanal.
The Things They Buried James D. Hornfischer 2011
-
But both, to gauge by the squalid setting, by the way they spring to attention at the sounding of a disembodied voice that issues from the dumbwaiter, are low men on the totem pole.
James Scarborough: Hollywood Fringe: The Dumb Waiter, Vespertine Productions & Girl Band in the Men's Room, Dirty Blonde Productions James Scarborough 2011
-
But both, to gauge by the squalid setting, by the way they spring to attention at the sounding of a disembodied voice that issues from the dumbwaiter, are low men on the totem pole.
James Scarborough: Hollywood Fringe: The Dumb Waiter, Vespertine Productions & Girl Band in the Men's Room, Dirty Blonde Productions James Scarborough 2011
-
- Open dumbwaiter and put the fire extinguisher in
Archive 2009-12-01 2009
-
As Mr. Tarrant told me in a 2007 interview, he heard, through a dumbwaiter door to the galley, Callaghan speaking in low, grave tones about the battle plan he would use that night off Guadalcanal.
The Things They Buried James D. Hornfischer 2011
-
Casey: In that kitchen, some of the equipment worked, some of it didn't and we had to use the dumbwaiter.
-
But both, to gauge by the squalid setting, by the way they spring to attention at the sounding of a disembodied voice that issues from the dumbwaiter, are low men on the totem pole.
James Scarborough: Hollywood Fringe: The Dumb Waiter, Vespertine Productions & Girl Band in the Men's Room, Dirty Blonde Productions James Scarborough 2011
bilby commented on the word dumbwaiter
As a kid I used to use dumbwaiter for number codes because it has 10 letters and all are different. So, d = 1, u = 2, m = 3 and so on.
In my address book I'd write people's phone numbers in the form: weaubeme for example. I liked turning numbers into words because I liked words more than numbers. Still do :-7
I considered using artichokes but I'd never eaten one at the time so it seemed a bit presumptious. What if I tried one and didn't like it? My word-number code would suddenly be revolting. But I'd seen a dumbwaiter in a hotel we'd stayed in on holiday so that seemed quite okay.
July 18, 2008
oroboros commented on the word dumbwaiter
See "Keeping Secrets" list for a bunch more codewords.
July 18, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word dumbwaiter
Also listed under dumb waiter.
December 4, 2010