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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
"Wimbledon just has this magic, and so much of that comes from the traditions you look forward to every single year," one diner told the newspaper, external.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
KETTERING, England—There was a time when the wooden-framed diner off the A14 highway here served up British comfort food to families traveling up from London.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
One early scene at a diner shows Valentina chatting with a group of immigrant men who have just crossed the border.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
Because these brands are throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, they often fail to account for how much value a disciplined diner can actually extract from these deals.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 2026
Food smells filled the diner, and she was out of the rain.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
When we told them we were from England, it was announced to the rest of the diners, who burst into a spontaneous outbreak of applause.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Someday, she thinks, even French diners might want to try it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Last year, the Gallery, where fantastical cityscapes and projections surrounded downtown L.A. diners, stood just a couple months before the concept was abandoned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
New research suggests that many of the UK's most popular takeout meals contain more salt than diners are led to believe.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Often diners remark that they are too pretty, too impressive to eat, but they always find a way to manage.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
