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pekoe

[pee-koh]
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noun
  1. a superior kind of black tea from Sri Lanka, India, and Java, made from leaves coarser than those used for orange pekoe.
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Origin of pekoe

1705–15; < dialectal Chinese (Xiamen) pek-ho, akin to Chinese báu white + hòu empress
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pekoe

Historical Examples

  • He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe and souchong.

    Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

    Oscar Wilde

  • The Pekoe is a particular kind of tea-shrub, the leaves of which are all black on the one side, and all white on the other.

  • This changes the quality of the Pekoe, for these leaves being scarcely formed, can have very little sap or flavour.

  • The best black teas in general use are pekoe and pouchong; the best green teas are imperial, young hyson, and gunpowder.

  • He hunted out a little tea shop, where he meditated over three cups of pekoe and hot buttered toast.

    Kathleen

    Christopher Morley

British Dictionary definitions for pekoe

pekoe

noun
  1. a high-quality tea made from the downy tips of the young buds of the tea plant
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Word Origin

C18: from Chinese (Amoy) peh ho, from peh white + ho down
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012