In northern China, we can say "喝茶了吗?" to ask someone if they have already eaten.
However, there are also 3 means of "喝茶":
1. drink hot water
2. drink hot water with tea
3. arrest the offender
Chinese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityIn northern China, we can say "喝茶了吗?" to ask someone if they have already eaten.
However, there are also 3 means of "喝茶":
1. drink hot water
2. drink hot water with tea
3. arrest the offender
I start with 2. It's the literal meaning of 喝茶. 喝 = drink, 茶 = tea, so "have some tea" is a perfect translation of 喝茶.
To explain 1, you should think it as an interpersonal communication. In some cases, 喝茶 means "sit down and have some drink", usually after a guest visit. In this case, 茶 does not necessarily be 茶 and may be any drink. It's usually when people have something to talk or discuss that the host serves some drink first.
The 3rd one as recognized by 神秘德里克, is an internet slang. When one talks about something politically-sensitive (like the Tiananmen Square Massacre) in mainland China, local police would ask them to “来警察局喝点茶” (come to the police office and talk seriously), which then boils down to the above paragraph (serve drink before discussion).