diff --git a/__tests__/transformers/mdxish-tables.test.ts b/__tests__/transformers/mdxish-tables.test.ts
index 3d7295f93..ff5f2d2fe 100644
--- a/__tests__/transformers/mdxish-tables.test.ts
+++ b/__tests__/transformers/mdxish-tables.test.ts
@@ -203,6 +203,181 @@ describe('mdxish tables transformation', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('given a leading list marker inside a JSX cell', () => {
+    it('renders an unescaped leading dash as a bullet list (default markdown behaviour)', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>- foo</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).toContain('<li>foo</li>');
+    });
+
+    it('renders an escaped leading dash as literal text (raw HTML <table>)', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>\\-</th><th>\\-</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>\\- fqefeq</td><td>\\- hello</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<li>');
+      expect(html).toContain('- fqefeq');
+      expect(html).toContain('- hello');
+    });
+
+    it('renders an escaped leading dash as literal text (<Table> component)', () => {
+      const doc = `<Table>
+  <thead>
+    <tr><th>\\-</th><th>\\-</th></tr>
+  </thead>
+  <tbody>
+    <tr><td>\\- fqefeq</td><td>\\- hello</td></tr>
+  </tbody>
+</Table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<li>');
+      expect(html).toContain('- fqefeq');
+      expect(html).toContain('- hello');
+    });
+
+    it('renders an escaped lone marker (no following content) as literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>\\-</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>body</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).toContain('-');
+    });
+
+    it('still parses emphasis (asterisk hugging text) inside a JSX cell', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>*italic*</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toContain('<em>italic</em>');
+    });
+
+    it('preserves a real <ul> inside a JSX cell', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td><ul><li>real item</li></ul></td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).toContain('<li>real item</li>');
+    });
+
+    it('renders an unescaped leading hash as a heading (default markdown behaviour)', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td># heading</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toMatch(/<h1[^>]*>heading<\/h1>/);
+    });
+
+    it('renders an escaped leading hash as literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>\\# heading</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toMatch(/<h1[^>]*>/);
+      expect(html).toContain('# heading');
+    });
+
+    it('renders an escaped leading hash with multiple hashes as literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>\\## subheading</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toMatch(/<h2[^>]*>/);
+      expect(html).toContain('## subheading');
+    });
+
+    it.each([
+      ['-', '-'],
+      ['*', '*'],
+      ['+', '+'],
+      ['#', '#'],
+      ['##', '##'],
+      ['###', '###'],
+    ])('flattens a standalone "%s" cell to literal text instead of an empty list/heading', (marker, expected) => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>${marker}</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>body</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).not.toMatch(/<h[1-6][^>]*><\/h[1-6]>/);
+      expect(html).toContain(`<th>${expected}</th>`);
+    });
+
+    it('keeps a list when the cell has actual content after the marker', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>- foo</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toContain('<ul>');
+      expect(html).toContain('<li>foo</li>');
+    });
+
+    it('keeps a heading when the cell has actual content after the hash', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td># heading</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toMatch(/<h1[^>]*>heading<\/h1>/);
+    });
+
+    it('flattens a standalone `>` blockquote marker to literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>></th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>body</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toMatch(/<blockquote/);
+      expect(html).toMatch(/<th>(>|&gt;|&#x3E;)<\/th>/);
+    });
+
+    it('flattens a standalone `---` thematic break to literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>---</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<hr');
+      expect(html).toContain('---');
+    });
+
+    it('flattens a standalone `***` thematic break to literal text', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>***</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).not.toContain('<hr');
+      expect(html).toContain('***');
+    });
+
+    it('keeps a blockquote when the cell has actual content after the marker', () => {
+      const doc = `<table>
+<thead><tr><th>head</th></tr></thead>
+<tbody><tr><td>> quote</td></tr></tbody>
+</table>`;
+      const html = toHtml(mdxish(doc));
+      expect(html).toContain('<blockquote');
+      expect(html).toContain('quote');
+    });
+  });
+
   describe('given malformed JSX inside <table>', () => {
     // Stray duplicated </td></tr> makes mdxjs reject the captured value;
     // the non-MDX fallback should still split the html node so blank-line
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index fa071476e..0b6fd595d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@
       },
       {
         "path": "dist/main.node.js",
-        "maxSize": "947KB"
+        "maxSize": "950KB"
       }
     ]
   },
diff --git a/processor/transform/mdxish/tables/mdxish-tables.ts b/processor/transform/mdxish/tables/mdxish-tables.ts
index 46e217ff7..59544bddd 100644
--- a/processor/transform/mdxish/tables/mdxish-tables.ts
+++ b/processor/transform/mdxish/tables/mdxish-tables.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import type { Html, Node, Parents, Root, Table, TableCell, TableRow } from 'mdast';
+import type { Html, List, ListItem, Node, Parent, Parents, Root, Table, TableCell, TableRow, Text } from 'mdast';
 import type { Transform } from 'mdast-util-from-markdown';
 import type { MdxJsxFlowElement, MdxJsxTextElement } from 'mdast-util-mdx';
 
@@ -38,6 +38,48 @@ const tableTypes = {
   td: 'tableCell',
 };
 
+const CELL_OPEN_TAG_RE = /^<(td|th)(?:\s[^>]*)?>/i;
+const LEADING_ESCAPED_MARKER_RE = /^\s*\\(?:[-*+](?=[ \t]|<|$|\n)|#)/;
+
+/**
+ * Cell starts with `\-`/`\*`/`\+`/`\#`; restore `\` before re-parse.
+ */
+const cellSourceHasEscapedMarker = (cellSrc: string): boolean => {
+  const open = cellSrc.match(CELL_OPEN_TAG_RE);
+  return open != null && LEADING_ESCAPED_MARKER_RE.test(cellSrc.slice(open[0].length));
+};
+
+/**
+ * Re-parsed children are a phantom empty block from a lone marker.
+ */
+const isLonePhantomBlock = (children: Node[]): boolean => {
+  if (children.length !== 1) return false;
+  const child = children[0];
+  switch (child.type) {
+    case 'list': {
+      const items = (child as List).children;
+      return items.length === 1 && ((items[0] as ListItem).children?.length ?? 0) === 0;
+    }
+    case 'heading':
+    case 'blockquote':
+      return ((child as Parent).children?.length ?? 0) === 0;
+    case 'thematicBreak':
+      return true;
+    default:
+      return false;
+  }
+};
+
+/** Slice the cell's substring via its outer-document offsets. */
+const sliceCellSource = (
+  tableSource: string | undefined,
+  cellPosition: Node['position'] | undefined,
+  baseOffset: number,
+): string | undefined => {
+  if (!tableSource || cellPosition?.start?.offset == null || cellPosition?.end?.offset == null) return undefined;
+  return tableSource.slice(cellPosition.start.offset - baseOffset, cellPosition.end.offset - baseOffset);
+};
+
 // `mdxjs` + `mdxFromMarkdown` is what `remarkMdx` registers internally; we
 // register them manually so we control ordering against our other tokenizers.
 // The fallback omits these so blank-line-separated markdown inside cells still
@@ -142,6 +184,7 @@ const processTableNode = (
   index: number,
   parent: Parents,
   documentPosition?: Node['position'],
+  tableSource?: string,
 ): void => {
   if (node.name !== 'Table' && node.name !== 'table') return;
 
@@ -150,24 +193,36 @@ const processTableNode = (
   const align = Array.isArray(alignAttr) ? alignAttr : null;
 
   let tableHasFlowContent = false;
+  const tableBaseOffset = position?.start?.offset ?? 0;
 
   // Re-parse text-only cells through markdown and detect flow content
   visit(node as Node, isTableCell, (cell: MdxJsxTableCell) => {
     if (!isTextOnly(cell.children as unknown[])) return;
 
-    const textContent = extractTextFromChildren(cell.children as unknown[]);
-    if (!textContent.trim()) return;
+    const originalText = extractTextFromChildren(cell.children as unknown[]);
+    if (!originalText.trim()) return;
+
+    // Restore the `\` so `\- foo` re-parses as text.
+    const cellSrc = sliceCellSource(tableSource, cell.position, tableBaseOffset);
+    const textContent = cellSrc && cellSourceHasEscapedMarker(cellSrc) ? `\\${originalText}` : originalText;
 
     // Since now we are using remarkMdx, which can fail and error, we need to
     // gate this behind a try/catch to ensure that malformed syntaxes do not
     // crash the page
     try {
       const parsed = tableNodeProcessor.runSync(tableNodeProcessor.parse(textContent)) as Root;
-      if (parsed.children.length > 0) {
-        cell.children = parsed.children as MdxJsxTableCell['children'];
-        if (hasFlowContent(parsed.children as Node[])) {
-          tableHasFlowContent = true;
-        }
+      if (parsed.children.length === 0) return;
+
+      // Lone marker → empty block; render as literal char.
+      if (isLonePhantomBlock(parsed.children as Node[])) {
+        const textNode: Text = { type: 'text', value: originalText.trim() };
+        cell.children = [textNode] as unknown as MdxJsxTableCell['children'];
+        return;
+      }
+
+      cell.children = parsed.children as MdxJsxTableCell['children'];
+      if (hasFlowContent(parsed.children as Node[])) {
+        tableHasFlowContent = true;
       }
     } catch {
       // If parsing fails, keep original children
@@ -349,7 +404,7 @@ const mdxishTables = (): Transform => tree => {
       // to build on the markdown / JSX table
       visit(parsed as Node, isMDXElement, (tableNode: MdxJsxFlowElement | MdxJsxTextElement) => {
         if (tableNode.name !== 'Table' && tableNode.name !== 'table') return undefined;
-        processTableNode(tableNode, index, parent as Parents, node.position);
+        processTableNode(tableNode, index, parent as Parents, node.position, node.value);
         return EXIT;
       });
     } else if (node.value.startsWith('<table')) {