tea and toaster
See also: tea-and-toaster
English
Alternative forms
- tea-and-toaster
Etymology
tea and toast + -er
Noun
tea and toaster (plural tea and toasters)
- (informal, chiefly medicine) A person, usually elderly and frail, with a diet lacking in nutrition.
- 1922, James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake:
- Again, if Father San Browne, tea and toaster to that quaintest of yarnspinners is Padre Don Bruno . . . .
- 1964, B. A. Cooper and L. Lowenstein, "Relative Folate Deficiency of Erythrocytes in Pernicious Anemia and its Correction with Cyanocobalamin," Blood, vol. 24, p. 505:
- The patients with inadequate diet admitted to ingesting a diet usually devoid of folate-rich food such as liver, kidney, and vegetables other than potatoes. Several probably were "tea and toasters."
- 2003, Robert K. Murray; et al, Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 586:
- Older people with poor dietary habits ("tea and toasters") may develop iron deficiency.
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Related terms
- tea and toast syndrome
See also
- ham-and-egger