"teacup and saucer" meaning in English

See teacup and saucer in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: tea-cup and saucer [alternative], cup and saucer [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} teacup and saucer (uncountable)
  1. (attributive, originally derogatory) A type of 19th-century English comedy pioneered by T. W. Robertson, characterised by natural dialogue and down-to-earth, domestic settings. Tags: attributive, uncountable Categories (topical): Drama
    Sense id: en-teacup_and_saucer-en-noun-fY5qM6KU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "senses": [
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        {
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          "orig": "en:Drama",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1889 December, Robert Buchanan, “The Modern Drama and Its Critics”, in The Contemporary Review, volume 56, page 924:",
          "text": "If a Drama is bold and romantic, it is unnatural, it does not resemble Life. If, on the other hand, it resembles Life very much, it is commonplace, it is of the “teacup and saucer” order, it has no morale, no bearing on questions of moral sewage and drainage.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1946, Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Late Nineteenth Century Drama, 1850–1900, volume 1, page 23:",
          "text": "In his youth [Clement Scott] was among the revolutionaries who rallied around the teacup-and-saucer comedy; in his age he was a likable and vigorous reactionary.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Mature Master, →ISBN, page 219:",
          "text": "He did not care very much for Wilde’s teacup-and-saucer drama but thought it went over well and was likely to be a success […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "(attributive, originally derogatory) A type of 19th-century English comedy pioneered by T. W. Robertson, characterised by natural dialogue and down-to-earth, domestic settings."
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          "ref": "1889 December, Robert Buchanan, “The Modern Drama and Its Critics”, in The Contemporary Review, volume 56, page 924:",
          "text": "If a Drama is bold and romantic, it is unnatural, it does not resemble Life. If, on the other hand, it resembles Life very much, it is commonplace, it is of the “teacup and saucer” order, it has no morale, no bearing on questions of moral sewage and drainage.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1946, Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Late Nineteenth Century Drama, 1850–1900, volume 1, page 23:",
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        {
          "ref": "2007, Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Mature Master, →ISBN, page 219:",
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        "(attributive, originally derogatory) A type of 19th-century English comedy pioneered by T. W. Robertson, characterised by natural dialogue and down-to-earth, domestic settings."
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}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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