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:
A massive star has been torn apart and gradually consumed by a black hole in a spectacular event that scientists compared to "preparing a snack for lunch."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
Invite your friends or family for lunch or dinner.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
After being dismissed for 426 shortly after lunch, Bangladesh seamer Hasan Mahmud stunned the hosts when he claimed both openers cheaply.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
USA Today published a photo earlier this year of a sailor’s mostly empty lunch tray, which included a few chunks of boiled carrot and processed meat of an indeterminate nature.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
After lunch, Mrs. Tracy started teaching English without saying a word about the hand holding thing.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Noticing a need for affordable meals, Palacios and fellow USC student Josiah Herfurth spent this past semester hosting $10-per-person lunches at their college apartments, dubbing the offering Cafe 10:31.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
At OpenTable, the days of brown-bag lunches and AI experiments are gone, Soo said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
The reversal follows criticism from teachers, nutritionists and parents who argued that removing eggs from school lunches could deprive children from poor families a key source of protein.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
For many working parents, she said, this was made worse by expensive nursery fees and the cost of covering children's hot lunches and after school clubs.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
I was still having trouble swallowing food and I wasn’t hungry, but I got the impression that company lunches didn’t happen every day, and that I should accept.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
They never divorced and lunched together almost daily.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
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
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
We lunched on a cold collation of duck and mutton shortly after noon; then betook ourselves to the instruments to observe the Transit.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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
Sims made the comment while he was lunching with Matt Troyka, a Democrat who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
One of Bunny’s favorite ways to start a sentence had been to let drop, quite casually: “When Dad was lunching with Paul Vanderfeller the other day...”
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
