Table (verb)

A table is a piece of furniture with a horizontal surface supported above the ground. One logical extension, namely use of to table, with the meaning to place on a table, is seldom used in a literal sense. Rather, it often evokes the imagined placement on a table of an (actual or figurative) document stating a proposal.

Such placement could facilitate either examining or storing the document (and likewise the proposal embodied by it). Thus in deliberative bodies, "tabling" a proposed measure leaves room for contrary intentions; those bodies' rules of order, or simply accepted tradition, may specify which of these is implied.

In fact, the meaning does vary among English-speaking countries:

• In British English, "to table" is applied to proposing the measure for consideration. See British Parliament for examples.

• In American English, in contrast, "to table" is applied to indefinite postponement of further consideration of the measure. See US Congress for examples.

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