soup kitchen
Americannoun
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a place where food, usually soup, is served at little or no charge to people experiencing food insecurity.
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Military Slang. (in World War I) a mobile kitchen.
noun
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a place or mobile stall where food and drink, esp soup, is served to destitute people
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military a mobile kitchen
Etymology
Origin of soup kitchen
First recorded in 1850–55
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.
In the Guanabacoa neighborhood, in eastern Havana, workers are busy installing 12 solar panels on the roof of a nursing home run by the Catholic Church that doubles as a soup kitchen.
From Barron's • Feb. 11, 2026
Kellond cofounded the organisation in memory of her "wonderful" caring friend Dianne Henry, who ran a church soup kitchen in the city for six years.
From BBC • Feb. 8, 2026
Apparently not when he’s working a soup kitchen, according to these legal aces.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
She still did good works, running L.A.’s largest soup kitchen during the Depression.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 24, 2025
Theo stood, turned to the man he was about to accuse, and saw the scene in the soup kitchen, saw Otis Amber cooking soup for the dirty, hungry men.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
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.
