lunch
Americannoun
-
lunches
plural
verb (used without object)
-
lunches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lunched,
past participle, past
-
lunching
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
lunches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lunched,
past participle, past
-
lunching
present participle
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:
On a lunch break at work shortly after her Instagram post, she opened her phone to 200 new comments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
In response, school lunch menus were revamped to offer more meatless and dairy-free options.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
His team also turned down a working lunch with Trump and left his arrival evening free.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
“I just interviewed 23 people,” he says, speaking over Zoom during his lunch break.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
After lunch, Mrs. Tracy started teaching English without saying a word about the hand holding thing.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Sampson-Smith added: "We provided school lunches during the school holidays, but at this point in time we've nothing in our freezers to do that for half term."
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
I’ll be sharing some of my favorites over the coming weeks, but a pot of soup in the fridge can quietly carry several lunches without asking much of you.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
What followed was a series of whirlwind dates - lunches, dinners, sightseeing and shopping trips.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
The feds operate more than a dozen food assistance programs, which provide grocery money for new parents and their toddlers, as well as free school breakfasts and lunches for lower-income children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
At eleven thirty, Roberto carried the twenty lunches in a box and delivered them, on foot, to the workers who were given half an hour for lunch.
From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez
On our second date, we lunched at a Japanese restaurant, where he asked about my values and dreams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
The two spacecraft, lunched on a single rocket, separated in space.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2025
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
For 10 days, Ms. LuPone had to isolate, a lady who lunched alone in her apartment as she coped with flulike symptoms and fatigue.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2022
They marched, rested, marched, lunched on water and a box of stale doughnuts, walked, rested, and once again on the final lap, Dicey carried Sammy on her back.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
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
Hours before lunching with Rendon in Lynwood, I had breakfast up the road with Hector De La Torre in his hometown of South Gate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2024
I thought about a baby rabbit that our dog, Moody Blue, caught and carried around—she was not actually lunching on the rabbit, just playing.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
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.
