Now local. A tea-tray, esp. a wooden one.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., lvii. (1760), II. 202. The coming of a servant with the tea-board prevented my presumption.
1771. Mrs. Haywood, New Present for Maid, 256. Tea-boards are cleaned by rubbing them well with an oily flannel.
1780. New Newgate Cal., V. 270. They doubled a silver tea-board together … and carried it away.
1868. ‘Holme Lee,’ B. Godfrey, I. vi. 76. The tea-board at the top of the table.
Hence Teaboardy a. nonce-wd., like a tea-board.
1890. Athenæum, 1 March, 283/1. The hardness, smoothness, and laboured polish of the surface, almost fit to be called ‘teaboardy.’
