burger
noun
a hamburger.
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burger
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Burger
BurgernounWarren Earl, 1907–1995, U.S. jurist: chief justice of the U.S. 1969–86.
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-burger
-burgera combining form extracted from hamburger, occurring in compounds the initial element of which denotes a special garnish for a hamburger or a substitute ingredient for the meat patty.
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Bürger
BürgernounGottfried August (ˈɡɔtfriːt ˈauɡʊst). 1747–94, German lyric poet, noted particularly for his ballad Lenore (1773)
burger
1 American
[bur-ger]
/ ˈbɜr gər /
noun
burgers
plural
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a hamburger.
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a food patty, or patty on a bun, containing ingredients other than beef.
veggie or turkey burgers.
Burger
2
American
[bur-ger]
/ ˈbɜr gər /
noun
-burger
3
American
burger
1
British
/ ˈbɜːɡə /
noun
Bürger
2
British
/ ˈbyrɡər /
noun
Usage
What does -burger mean? The combining form -burger is used like a suffix indicating a kind of hamburger or other patty in a sandwich bun. The form -burger comes from the end of the word hamburger, meaning "a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground beef in a roll or bun." The word hamburger itself comes from a shortening of a dish named Hamburger steak, from the German city of Hamburg.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of burger
1935–40, extracted from hamburger by false analysis as ham 1 + burger
Explanation
A grilled beef patty on a bun is called a burger. Lunch at a fast food restaurant often consists of a burger and fries. You can use the word burger as a casual shorthand for hamburger, which is ground or minced beef that's fried and served on a bun. A burger can also be made of other ingredients, like turkey or tofu or lamb. In fact, if you shape food into a patty, grill it, and put it on a roll or bun, you can call it a burger. The word was first used in 1939, from hamburger.
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:
At his Queenstown food truck, more modern, European-influenced offerings include a chicken Hāngī burger, served with a potato spread, grated apple and watercress salad on a sweet potato bun.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
If you unwittingly order something with iceberg lettuce on it, such as a burger, physically removing the lettuce will reduce the risk of contamination, Shumaker said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
As one Belgium-Spain matchgoer from the Netherlands stood taking a picture of the In-N-Out sign after the game, he said he’d never had a burger like the one he’d just tried.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
If the offer is a burger versus a steak at Capital Grille, it’s not really much of a decision.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
A girl who looked a little older than me carried out a plate piled high with a signature Frank burger and fries from the One Stop.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
McDonald’s sold red, white and blue milkshakes, Burger King offered a flag-bedecked series of glass tumblers, Disney characters wore tricorn hats for a line of park merchandise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Hardin is more amused than annoyed, particularly given the origin of the FTD Burger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
“We go, ‘OK, without us ever saying what it meant, can we call it the FTD Burger?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The young European arriving at a Dallas Costco or a California In-N-Out Burger sees a small marvel of organization, scale, of possibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Burger, who, like the others, was wearing a bathing suit, shoved his uniform into the canvas bag along with Quirin's and Heinck's discarded navy fatigues.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
The suffix -burger is loaned from hamburger to form cheeseburger or veggie burger - even though a hamburger refers to its origins in Hamburg, Germany, not to a burger made from ham.
From BBC ● May 11, 2013
He wrote graceful vers de societé, made translations from Bürger, and is best remembered by his well-known ballad of Gelert.
From A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by Cousin, John W. (John William)
It was here too that he formed the friendship of Bürger, to whose Academie der Schönen Redekünste, he contributed his Ariadne, and an essay on Dante.
From Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by Black, John
They were much of Scott’s mind when he was young, and translated Bürger, and “wished to heaven he had a skull and cross-bones.”
From Letters on Literature by Lang, Andrew
There is no mention of the sea in Bürger, whose hero is killed in the battle of Prague and travels only by land.
From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)
Nothing came of this, chiefly because of Schlegel's intimate relations to Bürger at the time.
From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Francke, Kuno
Supporters from across India are literally feeding "cockroach" education-reform protesters camped in the capital, sending a deluge of pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and tea.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
The chain was founded in Wichita, Kan., in 2002 and is known for its burgers, fries, cheese curds and sundaes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Pay attention when lettuce or greens show up in sandwiches or burgers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Wells Fargo suggests smoking a pork shoulder or ribs as an alternative to grilling burgers, with the average price for pork butts virtually unchanged from the prior year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
It looks like there are hamburgers, veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, and cookies.
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
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.
