English

Alternative forms

• tea-and-toaster

Noun

tea and toaster ‎(plural tea and toasters)

1. (informal, chiefly medicine) A person, usually elderly and frail, with a diet lacking in nutrition.
   • 1922, James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake:

     Again, if Father San Browne, tea and toaster to that quaintest of yarnspinners is Padre Don Bruno . . . .

   • 1964, B. A. Cooper and L. Lowenstein, "Relative Folate Deficiency of Erythrocytes in Pernicious Anemia and its Correction with Cyanocobalamin," Blood, vol. 24, p. 505:

     The patients with inadequate diet admitted to ingesting a diet usually devoid of folate-rich food such as liver, kidney, and vegetables other than potatoes. Several probably were "tea and toasters."

   • 2003, Robert K. Murray et al., Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9780071389013, p. 586:

     Older people with poor dietary habits ("tea and toasters") may develop iron deficiency.