lunch
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
-
a meal eaten during the middle of the day
-
(among older people) mid-afternoon tea
verb
-
(intr) to eat lunch
-
(tr) to provide or buy lunch for
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lunchsimple
-
lunchessimple
-
have lunchedperfect
-
has lunchedperfect
-
am lunchingprogressive
-
are lunchingprogressive
-
is lunchingprogressive
-
have been lunchingperfect progressive
-
has been lunchingperfect progressive
Past
-
lunchedsimple
-
had lunchedperfect
-
was lunchingprogressive
-
were lunchingprogressive
-
had been lunchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lunch
First recorded in 1585–95; short for luncheon
Explanation
Lunch is the meal you eat in the middle of the day. If you only have a short lunch break during your school or work day, you might quickly eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The size of your lunch depends on what country you live in. In the US, most people eat a small lunch and a larger dinner at the end of the day. The word is a somewhat fancy verb, too: "Shall we lunch at the club, or have the cook make us something at home?" Lunch is a shortened version of luncheon, which may stem from the earlier dialectical lunch, "hunk of bread and cheese."
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:
That meant improving service speeds, making stores more welcoming, and punching up the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Foreign farmworkers, he said, routinely worked seven days a week, skipped lunch breaks to maximise piece-rate earnings and were often paid below the national minimum wage.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
On a remote Cambridgeshire farm, where his nearest neighbour is half a mile away, Mathew Latta was making lunch when the peace was shattered by the sound of loud exhausts.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
Also having just come from the dentist, I was looking forward to a cold and soft lunch, and Bristol Farms’ is pretty decent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
While everyone else walked toward the lunchroom with their partner, I hurried ahead to grab my lunch tray.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
So, for now, Hewitt’s solution will be to bring in her own home-cooked lunches, emphasis on cooked.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
Tilley said the portrait took about nine months to complete, with sittings typically lasting from early morning until mid-afternoon several days a week – but including long restaurant lunches with champagne.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
And while we tend to think of picnics as outdoor lunches — which means sandwiches, grain salads and the occasional tub of pasta salad — biscuits suggest a different possibility.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Nearly 3 in 10 say the gift they would most value is recognition of the care giving they do—not a drugstore card, but genuine acknowledgment of the lunches, the logistics, the doctor’s appointments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
My mom places our camp-issued lunches on the compact table, sniffs the air, and rubs her nose.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
They never divorced and lunched together almost daily.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
Accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, he also lunched at a pizza parlor owned and operated by military veterans.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024
In the statement Monday noting Rubiales’ resignation, after Ceferin had lunched with the women delegates, there was praise but not words of solidarity toward the Spanish players or women’s soccer in general.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2023
During the trip, Mr. Musk also lunched with Bernard Arnault, the founder of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury company and a major advertiser.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2023
I knew the other clerks and young bond-salesmen by their first names and lunched with them in dark crowded restaurants on little pig sausages and mashed potatoes and coffee.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The two leaders ended up getting on well, even lunching together at times, despite belonging to different camps, said a senior U.S. defense official.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Munir accompanied Sharif during a visit to Washington in June, lunching with Trump.
From Barron's ● Apr. 12, 2026
A walkway runs along the length of it, passing by a giant dinosaur skeleton, a beach volleyball pitch and dozens of Googlers lunching under the hazy November sun.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025
He often spends his Fridays playing pickleball and lunching with his mother in her retirement home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
Soon she would be gone, rattling alone in the wagon-lit without me, and he and I would be together in the dining-room of the hotel, lunching at the same table, planning the future.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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.
