luncheonette
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of luncheonette
Explanation
A luncheonette is a small restaurant inside a store. During the 20th century, most dime stores and department stores had luncheonettes so shoppers could take a convenient lunch break. A luncheonette, or lunch counter, has a row of stools like a diner, but it serves a more limited menu — mainly sandwiches and salads. In their heyday, luncheonettes were found inside most five-and-dime stores, and some bigger department stores had them as well. The best-known dime store chain, Woolworth's, closed its last store in 1997, and while a few luncheonettes remain, the lunch counter tradition largely ended then. Luncheonette is from luncheon, "lunch," and -ette, "little."
Vocabulary lists containing luncheonette
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ette (small)
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-ette, List 2
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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.
Follow award-winning food writer Andrews and chef-proprietor Clark as they start at the latter’s Dad’s Luncheonette in Half Moon Bay and wind up in Ventura County, missing nary a delicious stop along the way.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2025
What was Old John’s Luncheonette for decades, a neighborhood anchor that attracted marquee names from ABC Studios nearby, has reopened after a pandemic pause.
From New York Times • Jun. 29, 2021
Sotiria Ioannidis, a server at Maria’s Luncheonette, said the work has definitely slowed the flow of new customers.
From Washington Times • Dec. 6, 2019
Mike Daryoush’s first restaurant — Moby’s Luncheonette in Bethesda, Md. — was a typical American breakfast-and-lunch joint, with fare including steak and cheese sandwiches, Reubens and tuna melts.
From Washington Post • May 27, 2019
He and his brother Rudolph came into the Student’s Luncheonette next door to the Detroit Mosque where Elijah Muhammad was about to speak at a big rally.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
