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Drop-leaf table

Ceramics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A drop-leaf table adjusts size with folding leaves for varying ceramic use.

Detailed Definition
In the category of ceramics, drop-leaf tables represent versatility. Poets explore change and accommodation.
Example
Example in poetry:
The drop-leaf table — with hinged leaves that fold down when not in use — appears in poems about small dwellings and the ingenuity of living in limited space; A poem about a servant's room or a modest Victorian cottage might describe the drop-leaf table as the room's one flexible element: "the leaves were raised for Sunday dinner, lowered again by Monday"; In a poem about a widow's reduced circumstances, the drop-leaf table's leaves remain folded: "no occasion now to raise them — the full table belonging to a life that needed more room"; The drop-leaf table's design — its expansion and contraction mirroring the gathering and dispersal of family — gives it a metaphorical richness suited to poems about domestic change; A Larkin-esque poem about provincial life might include a drop-leaf table in the front room, covered with a chenille cloth and never used for eating; In a poem about a first home, the drop-leaf table is the first piece of furniture: "it served as desk, dining table, and ironing board — the whole domestic life folded into its leaves."
Additional Notes
The drop-leaf table, with hinged leaves that fold down when not in use, was an important space-saving innovation in Georgian domestic life, allowing households in modest-sized rooms to expand table surfaces for tea or dining and then reduce them. Tea tables and breakfast tables in drop-leaf form frequently appear in eighteenth and nineteenth-century domestic writing. Their ceramic associations are with the ritual of tea — the deployment of teapot, cups, slop bowl, and sugar basin — which was itself one of the most symbolically charged domestic ceremonies of the period.
Also Known As
Gateleg table Pembroke table
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