refreshments

«refreshments» in Mova's school dictionary: small amounts of food and drink offered at a meeting… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (plural; refreshment, refreshments)

meaning for a pupil

1) small amounts of food and drink offered at a meeting, event or journey. tree →

2) (euphemism, polite) alcoholic drinks, as in "liquid refreshments" or "a few refreshments". tree →

3) (formal, singular) the feeling of being refreshed. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used on invitations and notices for food and drinks; as a euphemism, a polite, jokey way to talk about alcohol, all regions. "Liquid refreshment" almost always hints at beer or wine.

examples

• Refreshments will be served after the school play. tree →
• We sold refreshments at the sports day to raise money. tree →
• The grown-ups went to the pub for some liquid refreshment. tree →
• "Had a few refreshments last night, did we?" the neighbour teased. tree →
• Light refreshments include tea, juice and biscuits. tree →
• The coach stopped for refreshments halfway. tree →
• Shortly afterward, refreshments, consisting mostly of Camel's hump and ribs, were served to the company. tree →

note

Usually plural. On a school notice it means snacks and drinks; among adults with a wink it means alcohol. In maths problems refreshments are often things sold at a stall with prices to add up.

In the corpora

• In the middle is a dish of tarts that look so good that Alice wishes they'd hurry up and hand round the refreshments.
• For several weeks he refuses «his meals or intermediate light refreshments» (snacks between meals).
• "Refreshments" on an invitation can politely mean alcoholic drinks.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «refreshments» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.