On Dec 18, 3:43 pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , Tony Williams wrote:
I was 19, sitting around the dinner table in Tucson,
with my aunt's neighbours... "to see the nephew from
England".

We were talking about taking a hike on the Sunday, and
one of them remarked how she had difficulty in waking
up on the weekend. So I leant over and casually said
"shall I come over an knock you up then?".

Sudden silence.I guess you learned pretty quickly that that phrase has a *very* different
meaning here. grin

When sitting down to dinner, we habitually put "napkins" in our laps to
protect our clothing from spills, and to provide something to wipe our hands
on. As I understand it, you use "serviettes" for that purpose, and "napkins"
for something altogether different.

They're the same thing over here, napkin or serviette. The former would
usually be cloth, the latter paper.

Are you possible thinking of an intimate feminine use? In that case,
it's you in the US who call them sanitary napkins, we call them
sanitary towels. I can't think of any other meaing for napkin.

MBQ