Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index 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. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.