"He tiff'd his punch and went to rest."
Combe, Dr. Syntax, I. Canto v.
(This is quoted by Mr. Davies.)
TIFFIN (the Indian substantive).
1807.—"Many persons are in the habit of sitting down to a repast at one o'clock, which is called tiffen, and is in fact an early dinner."—Cordiner's Ceylon, i. 83.
1810.—"The (Mahommedan) ladies, like ours, indulge in tiffings (slight repasts), it being delicate to eat but little before company."—Williamson, V.M. i. 352.
" (published 1812) "The dinner is scarcely touched, as every person eats a hearty meal called tiffin, at 2 o'clock, at home."—Maria Graham, 29.
1811.—"Gertrude was a little unfortunate in her situation, which was next below Mrs. Fashionist, and who ... detailed the delights of India, and the routine of its day; the changing linen, the curry-combing ... the idleness, the dissipation, the sleeping and the necessity of sleep, the gay tiffings, were all delightful to her in reciting...."—The Countess and Gertrude, or Modes of Discipline, by Laetitia Maria Hawkins, ii. 12.
1824.—"The entreaty of my friends compelled me to remain to breakfast and an early tiffin...."—Seely, Wonders of Ellora, ch. iii.
c. 1832.—"Reader! I, as well as Pliny, had an uncle, an East Indian Uncle ... everybody has an Indian Uncle.... He is not always so orientally rich as he is reputed; but he is always orientally munificent. Call upon him at any hour from two till five, he insists on your taking tiffin; and such a tiffin! The English corresponding term is luncheon: but how meagre a shadow is the European meal to its glowing Asiatic cousin."—De Quincey, Casuistry of Roman Meals, in Works, iii. 259.