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.
Filled with photos and memorabilia, the coffee table book reflects on the "40 years since I quit my day job and ran off to join the circus".
From BBC • Dec. 10, 2025
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
Relive artist Brendan Lynch’s spring exhibition at Good Mother Gallery with a coffee table book that gives you insight into the Angeleno’s brain.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2024
Some of the hundreds of books not previously known to be in Darwin's library include Sun Pictures, a 1872 coffee table book showcasing photographs of artworks.
From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 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.
