tea boy—(UK)
1. a boy employed to run errands in an office, etc.:
- I left school at 17 and I started straight away in a recording studio, initially as a tea boy then trainee tape operator.
2. (coll.) a general assistant:
- Mr. Fenby says he began his career as a journalist employed as a “tea boy” at Reuters news agency.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase tea girl—(also: tea lady) a woman employed to make and serve tea in an office:
- She started out as a tea girl, then office junior in a busy credit department.
tea man—
1. a merchant who deals in tea:
- The Chinese teamen maintain a sort of incredulous nonchalance in the face of that almost complete capture of the market by the Indian teas.
2. (also: tea master) a man in charge of serving tea at a tea-party or other social occasion:
- In Kamakura for the first time a tea man did the tea ceremony for me.