coffee-table book
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of coffee-table book
First recorded in 1960–65
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.
When did you last buy a hardback and what was it – a cookbook, a coffee table book or fiction?
From BBC • May 24, 2026
If a dust jacket is torn on a coffee table book or cookbook, she’ll remove it, often revealing a cover with a “beautiful, classic, simple style.”
From MarketWatch • Nov. 19, 2025
They toyed with a sleek coffee table book with gorgeous photos of the house.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2025
Both options come with a photo opportunity and a personalized copy of Trump’s coffee table book featuring photographs from his administration, ”Our Journey Together.”
From Seattle Times • Apr. 5, 2024
He sits with Maxine on the fainting couch, leafing through a coffee table book she’d helped to edit on eighteenth-century French wallpapers, one side of the book resting on each of their knees.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
