dinner

English Online Dictionary. What means dinner‎? What does dinner mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English dyner, from Old French disner (“lunch”, but originally “breakfast”), (modern French dîner), from Vulgar Latin *disiūnō, *disiūnāre from Latin dis- + iēiūnō (“to break the fast”). Doublet of diner.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪnə/
• (US) enPR: dĭnʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈdɪnəɹ/, [ˈdɪnɚ]
• Rhymes: -ɪnə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: din‧ner

Noun

dinner (countable and uncountable, plural dinners)

1. A midday meal (in a context in which the evening meal is called supper or tea).
   • 1919, Elisabeth P. Stork (translator), Heidi, Johanna Spyri[1]:

     It was already late for school, so the boy took his time and only arrived in the village when Heidi came home for dinner. […] "Come to the table now and eat with us. Then you can go up with Heidi, and when you bring her back at night, you can get your supper here."

2. The main meal of the day, often eaten in the evening.
   • 1993, Mark Berry as "King Harkinian", a character in Animation Magic, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Philips Interactive Media (publ.).

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     I want to cook dinner.

4. An evening meal.

5. A meal given to an animal.

6. A formal meal for many people eaten for a special occasion.

   My family gathers twice a year, namely at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners.
7. (uncountable) The food provided or consumed at any such meal.

Usage notes

• There are differences in usage according to the social class of the speaker. Working-class and lower-middle-class speakers in Britain, for example, are more likely to refer to the midday meal as "dinner" and the evening meal as "tea" rather than "supper". Some speakers use common collocations of dinner such as school dinner, Sunday dinner and Christmas dinner to describe meals that they wouldn't otherwise call a dinner.

Synonyms

• (an evening meal): supper, tea
• (meal given to an animal): chow
• (midday meal): lunch, luncheon
• (formal meal for many people eaten at a special occasion): banquet, feast, luncheon

Derived terms

Related terms

• (combinatorial form): deipno-
• (fear of): deipnophobia
• (verb): dine

Descendants

Translations

Verb

dinner (third-person singular simple present dinners, present participle dinnering, simple past and past participle dinnered)

1. (intransitive) To eat a dinner; to dine.
2. (transitive) To provide (someone) with a dinner; to dine.
   • 1887, Caroline Emily Cameron, A Devout Lover, London: F.V. White & Co., Volume 1, Chapter 11, p. 181,^[3]

     She had taken her about to concerts and exhibitions—she had dinnered her at the Colonies, and suppered her at the New Club.

Synonyms

• (eat a dinner): dine (formal)

Translations

Anagrams

• endrin, in dern

Chinese

Alternative forms

• 癲拿 / 癫拿 (din1 naa4, “dinner”)

Etymology

From English dinner.

Pronunciation

Noun

dinner

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) dinner (evening meal; formal meal at special occasion) (Classifier: 個／个 c; 餐 c)

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

• lunch