LAY THE TABLE OR MAKE THE TABLE?

[san2612]

please help me with the following question.
1. Dinner will be ready soon. Can you please ………..the table?
A settle B lay C make D put
I chose C,make but the answer is B.lay. WHy B is better than C?

[Barb_D]

This is just one of those phrases you have to learn. In the US, we "set" the table, instead of "laying" it. It means to put the dishes and silver on, etc.

[konungursvia]

We can make a table, but that involves cutting wood, and putting it together in the shape of a flat surface with 3 or more legs.

[5jj]

However, we do make the bed - arrange the bedclothes in an orderly fashion ready to sleep in again.

[vil]

May I say in this instance "spread the table"?

V.

[bhaisahab]

May I say in this instance "spread the table"?

V.

No, we lay or set the table.

[vil]

Would you be kind enough tell me who use the mentioned bellow connotations of the term in question?

Spread the table = to prepare (a table) for eating; set. / to arrange (food or a meal) on a table

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/spread-betting#ixzz1NFw4aIZU

Spread the table = to arrange tableware upon (a table) in preparation for a meal: lay1, set1.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/spread-betting#ixzz1NFwWVVSO

[bhaisahab]

Would you be kind enough tell me who use the mentioned bellow connotations of the term in question?

Spread the table = to prepare (a table) for eating; set. / to arrange (food or a meal) on a table

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/spread-betting#ixzz1NFw4aIZU

Spread the table = to arrange tableware upon (a table) in preparation for a meal: lay1, set1.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/spread-betting#ixzz1NFwWVVSO

I've never heard "spread the table".

[riquecohen]

I've never heard "spread the table".

Nor have I, on the other side of the Atlantic.

[Route21]

Both of Vil's links, from Answers.com, appear to refer to the same set of definitions in the American Heritage Dictionary:

Item 6 (v tr.)

1. To prepare (a table) for eating; set.
2. To arrange (food or a meal) on a table.

Whilst I have never heard it used in this way, from a BrE point of view, there is also, in the same link, a reference to the noun "spread", which is defined as:

5. Informal. An abundant meal laid out on a table.

Now this I have heard in the context of: "They laid on a spread fit for a king".

Regards
R21

PS This is the second time today that definitions in the American Heritage Dictionary appear to have come into question - see http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...hing-kind.html