dumbwaiter
Americannoun
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a small elevator, manually or electrically operated, consisting typically of a box with shelves, used in apartment houses, restaurants, and large private dwellings for moving dishes, food, garbage, etc., between floors.
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British.
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an auxiliary serving table.
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a serving stand with tiers of revolving shelves.
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a serving cart.
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noun
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a stand placed near a dining table to hold food
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US and Canadian name: lazy Susan. a revolving circular tray placed on a table to hold food
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a lift for carrying food, rubbish, etc, between floors
Etymology
Origin of dumbwaiter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Occasionally, your group will be divided, communicating only by a makeshift dumbwaiter in the byzantine rooms that create the sensation of being in a maze-like mansion.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023
It's a dumbwaiter that was designed to carry these heavy glass plates.
From Scientific American • Jun. 22, 2023
He also tinkered with a way of improving a dumbwaiter, the elevator typically used to deliver food and other goods from one floor to another.
From Salon • Apr. 30, 2022
My favorite is the mansion’s kitchen, with its gleaming modern steel cabinets and appliances, delicate porcelain cups and the dumbwaiter used to transport it all to Mrs. Post’s dinner parties.
From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2018
At that very moment, for example, Will was inside the walls of the Ashers’ apartment building, navigating with the help of an outmoded dumbwaiter that probably no one but him knew existed anymore.
From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
