mealtime
Americannoun
-
mealtimes
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mealtime
First recorded in 1125–75, mealtime is from the Middle English word meeltyme. See meal 1, time
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:
Call it dystopic or innovative, Prego wants you to cherish — and forever remember — every single mealtime conversation with its limited-edition recording device.
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2026
Three months ago, he was finally given a new, longer bed, but that causes him to sit up in a position that he says led to a major choking incident one mealtime.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2025
Ararat employees told state investigators that her family members had been taught about mealtime precautions to prevent the woman from inhaling food, but could not provide written evidence of that training.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024
In addition to explaining the various barriers to patients' mealtime participation, interviews with a range of health professionals for the study identified strategies to make eating go more smoothly.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 15, 2024
After the chief issues us our meal bowls and spoons and assigns us our hut, we have only minutes to settle down before the 6 p.m. bell rings, signaling mealtime.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
She didn’t like the cold, and group conversations at mealtimes were awkward.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Kouki said he likes using his phone to watch Japanese baseball highlights, but the family now shuns screens during mealtimes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
The house is piled high with clothes, shoes, suitcases and kitchen equipment, meaning they have to eat separately at mealtimes as there isn't enough space to sit together.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
Detainees were being served food on paper clam-shell to-go boxes, rather than regular trays, a staffer said, because the facility lacked employees to wash up at the end of mealtimes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
I realize that they have no mealtimes, no rationing of food, and I think that these Powhatan people must be the wealthiest people on the earth.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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.
