n. [ Turk. qahveh, Ar. qahuah wine, coffee, a decoction of berries. Cf. Café. ]
☞ There are several species of the coffee tree, as, Coffea Arabica, Coffea canephora, Coffea occidentalis, and Coffea Liberica. The white, fragrant flowers grow in clusters at the root of the leaves, and the fruit is a red or purple cherrylike drupe, with sweet pulp, usually containing two pyrenes, commercially called “beans” or “berries”. [ 1913 Webster ]
They have in Turkey a drink called coffee. . . . This drink comforteth the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]
☞ The use of coffee is said to have been introduced into England about 1650, when coffeehouses were opened in Oxford and London. [ 1913 Webster ]
Coffee bug (Zool.),
Coffee rat (Zool.)
n. an evergreen shrub of Western U.S. (Rhamnus californicus), bearing small red or black fruits; -- called also the
n. a cake or sweet bread usually glazed after baking, and having added nuts and fruits; it is often served with coffee.
n. A house of entertainment, where guests are supplied with coffee and other refreshments, and where men meet for conversation. [ 1913 Webster ]
The coffeehouse must not be dismissed with a cursory mention. It might indeed, at that time, have been not improperly called a most important political institution. . . . The coffeehouses were the chief organs through which the public opinion of the metropolis vented itself. . . . Every man of the upper or middle class went daily to his coffeehouse to learn the news and discuss it. Every coffeehouse had one or more orators, to whose eloquence the crowd listened with admiration, and who soon became what the journalists of our own time have been called -- a fourth estate of the realm. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. One who keeps a coffeehouse. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. A public room where coffee and other refreshments may be obtained. [ 1913 Webster ]