dining hall
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dining hall
First recorded in 1660–70
Explanation
A dining-hall is a large space where many people eat at the same time. If you go to college and live in a dormitory, you'll probably eat most of your meals in a dining-hall. You can use the word dining-hall when you're talking about a cafeteria or another group space for eating. You'll find dining-halls at universities, camps. and boarding schools. The word hall. a long room, comes from the Old English root heall, "spacious roofed residence," and dining is rooted in the Old French disner, "to have a meal."
Vocabulary lists containing dining-hall
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.
AFSCME’s members include custodians, gardeners, dining hall food service workers, transportation workers and skilled craft workers such as plumbers and electricians.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
“In most CCRCs, when you go down to the dining hall, half the people have walkers or canes. In the promotional literature, you don’t see that at all,” Horowitz said.
From MarketWatch • May 8, 2026
The communal dining hall never had enough food, and the boys were always hungry.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
There’s also my go-to dining hall omelette and scrambled eggs, made with butter, crumbled feta cheese, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and Old Bay seasoning.
From Salon • Mar. 21, 2026
The dining hall had turned into a free-for-all of chaos.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
