soup kitchen
Americannoun
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a place where food, usually soup, is served at little or no charge to people experiencing food insecurity.
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Military Slang. (in World War I) a mobile kitchen.
noun
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a place or mobile stall where food and drink, esp soup, is served to destitute people
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military a mobile kitchen
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of soup kitchen
First recorded in 1850–55
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.
Daytime activities included volunteering at a soup kitchen, handing out food to families in Parque Maceo and dropping off N95 masks and meds at the towering Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
Nina, a 77-year-old retired engineer, said she could no longer go to the supermarket, getting her lunch and dinner from the soup kitchen instead, as she was not able to afford her own groceries.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
Apparently not when he’s working a soup kitchen, according to these legal aces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
"We'll let the parent know that it's there, and then the child doesn't know that it was from a soup kitchen, because some parents are embarrassed."
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025
I did not know what he meant by a soup kitchen and I stared at him.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
