"Barmecide feast" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From a tale in the Arabian Nights in which a rich man serves a beggar an imaginary banquet; see Barmecide.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Barmecide feasts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Barmecide feast (plural Barmecide feasts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1915, P.G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in Something Fresh, London: Hutchinson, page 122:",
          "text": "[H]e decided that his loved one was on the point of starvation. No human being, he held, could exist on such Barmecide feasts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1935, Milton H Stansbury, “The Surrealists”, in French Novelists of Today, University of Pennsylvania Press, pages 121-136:",
          "text": "Arthur Rimbaud, in a hotel dining room where, though indulging in a Barmecide feast before empty plates and glasses, he evinces the most evident signs of gastronomic enjoyment.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A meal with very little or no food"
      ],
      "id": "en-Barmecide_feast-en-noun-Do6sTOkd"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "5 95",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 94",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 95",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that promises much but delivers nothing; an illusion."
      ],
      "id": "en-Barmecide_feast-en-noun--hcKXDVT",
      "links": [
        [
          "illusion",
          "illusion"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "13 87",
          "word": "barmecidal"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Arabian Nights",
    "Barmecide"
  ],
  "word": "Barmecide feast"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From a tale in the Arabian Nights in which a rich man serves a beggar an imaginary banquet; see Barmecide.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Barmecide feasts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Barmecide feast (plural Barmecide feasts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "barmecidal"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1915, P.G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in Something Fresh, London: Hutchinson, page 122:",
          "text": "[H]e decided that his loved one was on the point of starvation. No human being, he held, could exist on such Barmecide feasts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1935, Milton H Stansbury, “The Surrealists”, in French Novelists of Today, University of Pennsylvania Press, pages 121-136:",
          "text": "Arthur Rimbaud, in a hotel dining room where, though indulging in a Barmecide feast before empty plates and glasses, he evinces the most evident signs of gastronomic enjoyment.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A meal with very little or no food"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Something that promises much but delivers nothing; an illusion."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "illusion",
          "illusion"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Arabian Nights",
    "Barmecide"
  ],
  "word": "Barmecide feast"
}