One who drinks tea, esp. one who drinks it habitually or in large quantities.
1756. Hanway, Ess. Tea, v. 225. The pernicious effects of tea … as it is used by the bulk of tea-drinkers.
1888. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 101/1. The quantity of theine consumed by even the most hardened tea-drinker is exceedingly minute.
So Tea-drinking, a. vbl. sb. the drinking of tea; † also, a social gathering at which tea is provided (obs.); also attrib.; b. ppl. a. that drinks tea.
1756. Hanway, Ess. Tea, viii. 243 (heading). The Prevalency of Example in Tea-drinking.
1799. Mar. Edgeworth, Lottery, i. She learned to love gossiping and tea-drinkings.
1813–4. T. Somerville, Life & Times (1861), 280. The individuals who met at a tea-drinking party one afternoon.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, II. i. Every raw, peevish, out-of-humoured, affected, dull, *tea-drinking, arithmetical fop, sets up for a wit.
1845. Agnes Strickland, Queens Eng., VIII. 310. Catherine of Braganza was certainly the first tea-drinking queen of England.
