banquet (qu as kw), banket, bankette

[In Dan. & Dut. banket; Ger. ban kett; Fr. banquet; Sp. banquet = a banquet; banquet a = a stool, a raised way; Port. ban queta a banquet; Ital. banchetto a feast, a little seat; dim in. of banco = a bench.] [BANK, BANQUETTE.] I. Literally : *1. Formerly: A de ert after dinner; not the substantial meal itself. "We'll dine in the great at room, but let the music and banquet be prepared here."- Mas singer : The Unnatural Combat , iii. 1. ( Nares .) (a) "The common place of banqueting , or eating the de ert," Giffard says, "was the garden-house or arbour, with which almost every dwelling was furnished." (b) Evelyn used banquet in the sense of a de ert as late as 1685, though the modern signification had already come into partial use. ( Nares .) 2. Now : An entertainment of a sumptuous character, at which choice viands and liquors are placed before the guests. (Used of the whole entertainment, and not simply of the de ert.) "Shall the companions make a banquet of him?..." Job xli. 6. II. Fig .: Anything on which the mind can feast with pleasure. "In his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me." Shakesp.: Macbeth , 1. 4. banquet-hall, s. A hall for banqueting in, or a hall in which banqueting has actually taken place. "You shall attend me, when I call, In the ancestral banquet -hall." Long fellow: The Golden Legend, i. IMG:content-1045.jpg:[blocks in formation]