1. A house of entertainment where coffee and other refreshments are supplied. (Much frequented in 17th and 18th c. for the purpose of political and literary conversation, circulation of news, etc.)
The places now so called have lost this character, and are simply refreshment-houses.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 66. Coffa-houses [in Constantinople] … There sit they chatting most of the day, and sippe of a drinke called Coffa.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cauphe-house, a Tavern or Inn where they sel Cauphe.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 24 Nov. To a coffee-house, to drink jocolatte.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 48. This yeare [1650] Jacob a Jew opened a coffey house at the Angel in the parish of S. Peter in the east, Oxon.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 46, ¶ 2. At Lloyd’s Coffee-house where the Auctions are usually kept.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 198. The leaders of the legislative clubs and coffee-houses are intoxicated with admiration at their own wisdom and ability.
1817. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), II. xi. 354. Anecdotes of court excesses … in daily circulation through the coffee-houses.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 369. Every coffee house had one or more orators to whose eloquence the crowd listened with admiration.
2. attrib. and Comb.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1910/4. A Coffee-house-man at the corner house in Brook-street.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1750), 19. Coffeehouse-wits.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5900/4. Mary Hassard … Coffee-House-Holder.
1751. J. Brown, Shaftesb. Charac., 137. Our modish coffee-house philosophers.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., i. 1. What we can learn from every coffee-house conversation.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 150. His lordship was apt to be too civil…. To-day he was quite the coffee-house waiter. He praised everything. Ibid. (1876), Sp. Mere coffee-house babble.
