dumbwaiter

Meaning

1. A small elevator used to move food etc. from one floor of a building to another.
2. (obsolete) A table or set of trays on rollers used for serving food.
3. (obsolete) A lazy Susan.

Synonyms

food elevator

elevator

🛗

lift

dinner lift

food conveying elevator

Translations

montaplatos

montavivande

Aufzug

servo muto

Aufzugsanlage

Speiseaufzug

muntaplats

ανελκυστήρας

Fahrstuhl

🛗

ανυψωτήρας πραγμάτων

ανόητος γκαρσόν

ascenseur

monte-plats

ascensore

ασενσέρ

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈdʌmˌweɪtəɹ/

Etymology

From dumb (“unable to speak”) + waiter, originally separate words and describing the portable table's inability to relate gossip after the meal. By the use of the term to describe small service elevators in American homes in the 1840s, it simply meant dumb as “mechanical”, “unable to speak at all”.