diner
Americannoun
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a person who dines.
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a railroad dining car.
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a restaurant built like such a car.
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a small, informal, and usually inexpensive restaurant.
noun
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a person eating a meal, esp in a restaurant
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a small restaurant, often at the roadside
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a fashionable bar, or a section of one, where food is served
Etymology
Origin of diner
Explanation
A diner is a person who's eating a meal, and it's also a word for a casual restaurant. If you pass by a diner in a diner, check out what's on his plate. It could be anything from eggs over easy to salisbury steak. If you dine in a cafe you're a diner, and if you eat in the dining car on a train, you can call it a diner too. Your favorite neighborhood diner — a casual restaurant that keeps late hours and serves a variety of food — is actually named after these railroad restaurants. The original diners, from the 1930s, were shaped like train cars, often clad in stainless steel, and had long, narrow space inside with stools along a counter.
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.
Silver Diner, which has locations across the Mid-Atlantic states, offers a free-range turkey platter with rosemary-sage gravy and ginger cranberry-orange sauce on its kids’ menu.
From Salon • Apr. 25, 2026
Diner places an order; chef reads and understands the ticket.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026
Guerilla Diner, a burger joint in Bengaluru, is usually fully booked within minutes when it opens reservations each Tuesday.
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
Guests can charge their Teslas while getting ‘epic bacon’ and tuna melts carhopped to their vehicles, and other unique quirks we learned at the opening of Elon Musk’s new Tesla Diner in Hollywood.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 18, 2025
Dallas was trying to remember when he and Florida had run into Mr. Trepid outside Grace’s Diner.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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.
