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pekoe

American  
[pee-koh] / ˈpi koʊ /

noun

  1. a superior kind of black tea from Sri Lanka, India, and Java, made from leaves coarser than those used for orange pekoe.

pekoe British  
/ ˈpiːkəʊ /

noun

  1. a high-quality tea made from the downy tips of the young buds of the tea plant

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of pekoe

1705–15; < dialectal Chinese (Xiamen) pek-ho, akin to Chinese báu white + hòu empress

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The chain’s sweet tea is said to be a "refreshing blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea," which can range between 90 and 220 calories.

From Fox News • Oct. 20, 2021

Sit for 90 minutes, have a cup of orange pekoe and feel satisfied.

From New York Times • Jul. 5, 2013

There is leaf size to consider too: the term orange pekoe, for instance, has nothing to do with oranges but denotes whether the leaf is a bud or the tip of a bud.

From Time Magazine Archive

She lifted her glass and wondered whether Levy Pants was beginning to reek a little of used pekoe.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

"Why should he not stay there with them?" said Mr. Scobel, sipping his pekoe in a comfortable little circle of gossipers round Mrs. Tempest's gipsy table.

From Vixen, Volume I. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.