meal

¹ American  

[meel] / mil /

noun

1. the food served and eaten especially at one of the customary, regular occasions for taking food during the day, as breakfast, lunch, or supper.

2. one of these regular occasions or times for eating food.

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meal ² American  

[meel] / mil /

noun

1. a coarse, unsifted powder ground from the edible seeds of any grain.

   wheat meal;

   cornmeal.

2. any ground or powdery substance, as of nuts or seeds, resembling this.

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-meal ³ American  

1. a native English combining form, now unproductive, denoting a fixed measure at a time.

   piecemeal.

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meal ¹ British  

/ miːl /

noun

1. 1. any of the regular occasions, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc, when food is served and eaten

   2. ( in combination )

      mealtime

2. the food served and eaten

3. informal to perform (a task) with unnecessarily great effort

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meal ² British  

/ miːl /

noun

1. the edible part of a grain or pulse (excluding wheat) ground to a coarse powder, used chiefly as animal food

2. oatmeal

3. maize flour

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meal Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing meal

• square meal

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Other Word Forms

• meal-less adjective
• mealless adjective

Etymology

Origin of meal¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English mǣl “measure, fixed time, occasion”; cognate with German Mal “time,” Mahl “meal,” Old Norse māl, Gothic mēl “time, hour”

Origin of meal²

First recorded before 900; Middle English mele, Old English melu; cognate with German Mehl, Dutch meel, Old Norse mjǫl, Gothic malan; akin to Latin molere “to grind” ( mill ¹ )

Origin of -meal³

Middle English -mele, Old English -mǣlum, combining form representing mǣl meal ¹

Example Sentences

In rural Sichuan and Chongqing, large community meals are an important part of culture, featuring twice-cooked pork, steamed ribs, soup and homemade liquor.

From BBC

You can watch “Jaws” enough times to memorize all the shark meals and still be unnerved by Captain Quint’s tale of the USS Indianapolis.

From The Wall Street Journal

What I’m craving now are simple, healthy meals that remind me of warmer times.

From The Wall Street Journal

Dried, fresh, red, or green chilis appear in nearly every meal served in Bhutan.

From Salon

So they spent four nights together, taking it easy, eating meals as a team, alleviating any pressure that might have built up.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• breakfast
• brunch
• dessert
• dinner
• fare
• feast
• lunch
• luncheon
• picnic
• refreshment
• snack
• supper
• table
• tea