meal

¹

[meel]

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.

meal

²

[meel]

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.

-meal

³

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

   piecemeal.

meal

¹

/ 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

meal

²

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• mealless adjective
• meal-less adjective

Word History and Origins

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of meal¹

Old English mǣl measure, set time, meal; related to Old High German māl mealtime

Origin of meal²

Old English melu; compare Dutch meel, Old High German melo, Old Norse mjöl

Idioms and Phrases

• square meal

Example Sentences

Food waste can be far more valuable than the pile of scraps left behind after a meal.

Read more on Science Daily

Guards brought Maxwell her meals in her dormitory room.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

One of the young volunteers, Mboreha Ahamed, 23, added: "Being here under these three flags is super symbolic... over a meal where we think of other things."

Read more on Barron's

The school district distributed millions of meals to needy families and then, as campuses reopened, worked to upgrade air filtration systems inside schools.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Florida was one of 15 states that chose not to participate in SunBucks, a new federal summer meals program designed to help low-income families feed their children when school is out.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

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