Tealess, a. (f. tea n. + -less.)

Without or destitute of tea; not having had one's tea.

1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 562 Day pass'd, defrauded of its moistest meals, Breakfastless, milkless, tealess, soupless.
1849 THACKERY Pendennis lxiv, He sat rapt in wonder, tealess, and bread-and-butterless.
1858 TROLLOPE Dr. Thorne xxx, There she waited till ten o'clock, tealess.

Tealess, the Oxford English Dictionary says, expresses not only a state of pantry, but a state of being as well. When somebody is tealess, it is fair to say that they face the very potential of a tealeaf destitution, like being deprived our most basic comfort.

It's not that I didn't have any tea. I had tea, but a bag of tea can only flavour so much water. One would do for a cup or a pot, maybe, but I was an ocean, vast and undrinkable, and I had sucked from his leaves all they had in them to give. His papers outlasted his stay in the apartment; they were still on my bedroom floor after he left, unorganized and browned by household dirt.

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