Anglo-Ind. Also tepoy. [f. Hindī tīn, in comb. tir- three + Pers. pāë, pāï foot. The legitimate Persian name is sihpāya or sipäï; the Hindī tirpad or tripad (Yule).]
A small three-legged table or stand, or any tripod; (by erron. association with tea), such a table with a receptacle for tea or a tea-caddy.
1828. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, VI. xxix. 246. A low teapoy of sessoo wood.
1844. [? Sir J. Kaye], Peregrine Pultuney, I. v. 112. A tepoy or tinpoy is a thing with three feet, used in India to denote a little table.
1887. Yan Phou Lee, When I was a Boy in China, 25. [The tables] were flanked by two rows of chairs … with tea-poys between that served to hold the cups of guests.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Tea-poy, an ornamental pedestal table, with lifting top, enclosing caddies for holding tea.
1886. Yule & Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, Teapoy,… often in England imagined to have some connexion with tea, and hence, in London shops for japanned ware and the like, a teapoy means a tea-chest fixed on legs. But this is quite erroneous.
