supper
Americannoun
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the evening meal, often the principal meal of the day.
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any light evening meal, especially one taken late in the evening.
an after-the-theater supper.
adjective
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of or relating to supper.
the supper dishes.
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for, during, or including supper.
a supper party.
noun
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an evening meal, esp a light one
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an evening social event featuring a supper
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to obtain something by performing a service
verb
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rare (tr) to give supper to
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rare (intr) to eat supper
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of supper
1225–75; Middle English sup ( p ) er < Old French souper, noun use of souper to sup 2
Explanation
Supper, which is also known as dinner, is usually the third daily meal you eat. Many families try to sit down and eat supper together at the end of the day. First comes breakfast, then lunch, and then finally, in the evening, it's time for supper. The word supper is less common today than dinner, although North Americans generally consider the words to be synonyms. Until the early 20th century, the meal we now generally refer to as lunch was called dinner, while the evening meal was supper. It comes from the Old French soper, "to eat the evening meal."
Vocabulary lists containing supper
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This last supper of a season is a culmination of all their training, formal and otherwise, blending into a stress test that amazingly feels less stressful than many of this show’s loudest cortisol-spiking installments.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
"I wanted to come to Nidhi and Vik's supper because I felt so far away from home. I wanted to feel safe, comfortable, and at home."
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
After gathering at the supper table to dine and talk about their days, parents and children moved into the den to be entertained by the novel contraptions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
"The restaurant we went up to last night for supper, they were all talking about it."
From Barron's ● Apr. 1, 2026
Every night at supper we brought up dog sled racing.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
The heart of the space is an airy, sophisticated sitting room that connects on the south side to a dining room suggestive of decadent late night suppers in postwar Paris, and an industrial-inflected kitchen.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
Meanwhile Kerry Burley, who has been a regular at Burns suppers for more than a decade, is about to become president of Sandyford Burns Club in Glasgow.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
Sunday suppers are also when they divvy up things that need to get done around the house.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 6, 2023
She said food-service workers at her school prepare about 700 breakfasts — which are placed in bags that students take to class — about 800 lunches and more than 100 suppers each day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
There were caves everywhere running into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the Cloud-Men’s wives were crouching over little stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husbands’ suppers.
From "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
