Table

Pronunciation

• Canada enPR: tā'bÉ™l, IPA: /ˈteɪbÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -eɪbÉ™l

Origin

From Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula, ("table, board"; also as tæfl, tæfel), an early borrowing of Latin tabula ("tablet, board, plank, chart"). Reinforced in Middle English by Old French table, from the same Latin source.

Full definition of table

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.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 6, 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.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter Foreword, 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, ….
2. A flat tray which can be used as a table.
3. (poker, metonym)  The lineup of players at a given table.
   That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event
4. A group of people at a table, for example for a meal or game.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;.... Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
5. A service of Holy Communion.
6. A two-dimensional presentation of data.
1. A matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns.
• 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)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.
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)  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.
• 2011, April 10, Alistair Magowan, Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle, 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.
7. (musical instruments)  The top of a stringed instrument, particularly a member of the violin family: the side of the instrument against which the strings vibrate.
8. (backgammon)  One half of a backgammon board, which is divided into the inner and outer table.

Synonyms

• (computing) grid, vector

Hypernyms

• (furniture) furniture
• (computing) array

Hyponyms

• (computing) hashtable

Derived terms

Related terms

• tablet

Coordinate terms

• (furniture) chair

Verb

1. To put on a table.
2. (British, Canada) To propose for discussion (from to put on the table).The legislature tabled the amendment, so they will start discussing it now.
3. (US) To hold back to a later time; to postpone.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.
4. To tabulate; to put into a table.to table fines
5. To delineate, as on a table; to represent, as in a picture.
• Francis Bacontabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation
6. To supply with food; to feed.
7. (carpentry) To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf.
8. To enter upon the docket.to table charges against someone
9. (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.

Related terms

• tabulate

Anagrams

• ablet
• blate
• bleat