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meal
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
meal
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a birthday meal
▪ Where are you going for your birthday meal?
an evening meal
▪ I was just preparing the evening meal when the phone rang.
cook a meal
▪ Shall I cook the meal tonight?
fish meal
have lunch/a meal etc
▪ I usually have breakfast at about seven o'clock.
meal ticket
▪ There were times when he suspected he was just a meal ticket to her.
midday meal
▪ We stopped off in Colchester for our midday meal.
ordered a meal
▪ He sat down and ordered a meal.
potluck meal/dinner etc
▪ a potluck supper at the church
proper meals
▪ Try to eat proper meals instead of fast-food takeaways.
ready meal
restaurant meals
▪ There is a choice of bar snacks or restaurant meals.
school meals/lunches (also school dinners British English)
▪ We provide good-quality school meals.
walk off dinner/a meal etc (=go for a walk so that your stomach feels less full)
wholesome food/fare/meal etc
▪ well-balanced wholesome meals
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
decent
▪ He desperately needed sleep and a decent meal.
▪ A lot of the time up there, I was starved for a decent meal.
▪ With her stomach settling and a surprisingly decent meal in her, Anne's spirits rose all the way up to okay.
▪ More and more husbands, desperate for a decent meal, are donning aprons themselves.
▪ You'd get a decent meal at least.
▪ By the looks of Carla she had not had a decent meal for weeks.
▪ And as for compassion, haven't I just provided your first decent meal of the day?
delicious
▪ Here's how to create delicious last-minute meals entirely from standbys in the store cupboard.
▪ Lauriston Farm Restaurant Enjoy a fabulous view over the Forth as well as a delicious meal.
▪ They had eaten the delicious meal to the sound of the river flowing past while the sun faded behind the skyline.
▪ And our free gift this month is a recipe leaflet showing you how to create delicious calorie-reduced meals.
▪ The result was a delicious nourishing meal, and many swore, an aphrodisiac to boot.
▪ Filled with recipes for quick, easy, yet substantial and delicious meals it may soon become your bible.
▪ The Coach House and Buttery restaurants offer delicious meals and refreshments.
▪ Prestige's stainless steel pressure cooker with a Thermocore base allows you to produce delicious, complete meals in minutes.
free
▪ A lot of them were here, because a free meal is not to be sneezed at.
▪ Instead of having parents pack lunches, he decided the kids should get free, hot meals.
▪ This increases their own biological chances and gives them a free meal into the bargain.
▪ How can a free meal raise money?
▪ Details of clothing grants, free school meals and community contacts should also be at hand.
▪ The folks who ran the place were nice enough, offering me a free meal next time.
▪ Clinton's plan to provide free meals is a case in point.
▪ They served thousands of free meals a week to the hungry in their neighborhood.
full
▪ As an alternative, guests can buy snacks and full meals in the hotel's own taverna.
▪ Several small restaurants at the swimming area serve full meals and cold beer.
▪ She provided full meals and basic decency for her many children.
▪ The cookhouse - for snacks or full meals.
▪ Many said they felt full after every meal and never needed to eat in between.
▪ Traders working late can even take a full evening meal in the restaurant.
▪ The restaurant has a full meals service, seven days a week, and there is also a bar facility.
good
▪ The police at Castlereagh allocated a cell to each man and gave them a good meal.
▪ The inmates in there get three good meals a day.
▪ When a gentleman has had a particularly good meal, Bogtrotter, he always sends his complements to the chef.
▪ In either case, a good meal helps to relax the body and spirit and wind up the day.
▪ Tea and toast would not have done for Hannah, who thought breakfast the best meal there was.
▪ All she had to do was provide three good meals a day.
▪ It was well worth waiting for, and was the best meal we had during the holiday.
▪ Enough for one good meal, anyway.
hot
▪ It was by now that and I wondered whether chilli had been a good choice for a hot meal.
▪ Instead of having parents pack lunches, he decided the kids should get free, hot meals.
▪ Choice of 16 malt whiskies. Hot bar meals.
▪ Why have a separate bureaucracy charged with one small thing-delivering hot meals to the elderly?
▪ With a warm fire, and a hot meal, I began to recover from my unpleasant experiences.
▪ What is so special about a hot meal anyway?
▪ During cold weather, hot meals and plenty of hot drinks will make you feel warmer inside.
▪ You want us all home for hot meals!
main
▪ A relaxed regime of visiting the lavatory after each main meal and at bedtime is established with the parents keeping a record.
▪ It usually covers the cost of accommodation, breakfast, a main meal and return taxi fare from airport to hotel.
▪ The main meal is often followed by something sweet.
▪ The main meal of the day may be eaten at lunch time or in the evening, according to your normal habit.
▪ Try to stick to the suggested menu and have your main meal at lunchtime.
▪ Tomorrow's main meal will be at lunchtime again so please try to prepare for it today.
▪ The main leavings from meals were bones.
▪ Snacks can follow the same principle of low-fat, low-sugar eating as the main meals.
proper
▪ Have at least one proper meal a day, hot if possible.
▪ I know it ain't much, but I du n no if it's enough to get a proper meal like.
▪ I don't see why we can't have a proper meal after a do.
ready
▪ You can dish up lavish meals without doing anything more than popping a ready meal in the microwave.
▪ Seddon was now ready for a meal, too.
▪ Freezer: Pack of steaks, beefburgers, fish-fingers, peas, runner beans, ready cooked curry meal, cod.
▪ Further on were the more recent developments in the ready-meal section.
regular
▪ Three regular meals a day avoiding snacks often leads to weight reduction.
▪ But the sound of those guns makes regular meals impossible....
▪ For more information: Available from: Healthy Eating Eating regular nourishing meals is important to keep yourself fit and well.
▪ To appear round and full was to exhibit the characteristics of prosperity and the patent outcome of regular meals.
▪ He'd never found a wire he couldn't climb. Regular meals, that was the problem.
▪ Lois's arrival had provided him regular meals and meaningful work.
▪ And the sharks in the estuary were used to solid, regular meals.
simple
▪ Le Déjeuner - a simple midday meal after a morning in the fields. 3.
▪ A well-made pesto is a fine companion to a grilled game bird when a simple, low-cholesterol meal is in order.
▪ And within all these cuisines you call choose anything from simple meals to gourmet spreads.
▪ Later, at half-past twelve, she began preparing a simple meal, hot soup and cold salad.
▪ There were plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from, but Sabine had already mentally opted for a simple meal.
▪ Rosheen had prepared a simple meal for herself and Klift.
▪ Light beer and vodka were followed by a simple but nourishing meal of stewed meat and boiled potatoes, preceded by borscht.
▪ They'd taken no notice of Thérèse reporting that the Bishop expected only a simple meal.
square
▪ Indeed he often gave them whatever was in the till, feeling they looked in need of a square meal.
▪ So a catastrophic drop to 5 percent of its pre-deluge invertebrate quantities still provided them with three square meals a day.
■ NOUN
barium
▪ A small bowel barium meal and colonoscopy were performed in eight cases and gastric endosonography was performed in one patient.
▪ So I went to see a man in Devonshire Place and he sent me down the road for a barium meal X-ray.
▪ The following year the surgeon arranged an x ray of her lumbar spine and a barium meal, which were normal.
▪ A barium meal showed no definite abnormality.
▪ Oesophageal radionuclide transit was evaluated in 15 patients and a barium meal was performed in five cases to confirm endoscopical findings.
▪ She continued to have the pain and a repeat barium meal four years later was normal.
▪ This study, however, showed increased use of barium meal examinations, from 46 during 1974-7 to 86 during 1988-91.
▪ A barium meal confirmed a hiatus hernia but the chest pain continued to infiltrate my left arm.
course
▪ And catering for everything from carrot juice to champagne, open sandwiches to a 5 course meal.
▪ The evening features a four-#course meal at $ 65 per person.
▪ A three course meal costs just £1.75 and is completely free from any artificial colours and flavours.
evening
▪ Price includes bed and breakfast, however evening meals may be taken at the Leonetto for a supplement.
▪ An evening meal began promisingly with a bruschetta topped with chopped spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto and feta cheese.
▪ Once again the room becomes a hive of activity, and the evening meal is forgotten.
▪ Nutritional deficiency must be avoided by providing the recommended daily allowance of protein in the evening meal and later in the day.
▪ The evening meal generally includes two courses: the food cost averages £1.35p.
▪ Bar lunches, full lunches and a four-course evening meal are available.
▪ The vehicles are put away again, and the now cold and slightly unappetising evening meal is pushed back into the microwave.
▪ The prize includes first class rail fares to Rusland Hall and two nights' accommodation with breakfast and evening meal.
midday
▪ Le Déjeuner - a simple midday meal after a morning in the fields. 3.
▪ I said to him once, sitting in a chair as he fed me my midday meal of baked beans and crackers.
▪ They had their midday meal fairly early, soas to have it out of the way before their peculiar visitor arrived.
▪ The family is eating the midday meal.
▪ During the midday meal the older children read edifying passages chosen by Nicholas from religious or secular history.
▪ His wife came in to tell him that the midday meal was ready, that the soup was getting cold.
▪ They would stop at an inn for a midday meal, discuss their finds and be instructed particularly on their medical properties.
▪ Sunday was the one day on which most of the mountain shepherds ate their midday meal indoors.
school
▪ This boom in fast food is providing strong competition for both staff restaurants and school meal services.
▪ It's very easy to organise some investigative work by children on school meals provision.
▪ They live in the nine skinflint boroughs - mostly Tory authorities - which have scrapped their school meals service on cost grounds.
▪ Assemblies, dress requirements, school meals provision and links with parents may be insensitive to different cultural backgrounds and linguistic diversity.
▪ Like most things in education there is no single market for school meals.
▪ One of the largest new contracts is a £9 million deal with the City of Westminster to provide a school meals service.
▪ Discuss the possibility of getting a 51 school meals debt taken off our books.
test
▪ At eight hours after injection, about 70% of maximum gall bladder contraction was achieved at 45 minutes after the test meal.
▪ They were swallowed half an hour before the ingestion of the test meal.
▪ Time zero was considered the time of completion of the test meal.
▪ Subsequently, after consumption of a test meal, gall bladder images were made every 15 minutes for 2 hours.
▪ All received the standard semisolid test meal.
▪ In gall bladder filling after a test meal, V r e s reflects maximum gall bladder volume.
▪ Identical test meals were used for all the experiments.
▪ Clinicians must take into account the nature of the test meal used when results are correlated with clinical features.
ticket
▪ There were times when he suspected he was just a meal ticket to her.
▪ For much of Pennington's working life, Shakespeare has been his mission and his meal ticket.
▪ I grope for the saucepans and our meal tickets.
▪ Apple trees are its bread and butter in Britain but mistletoe clearly has no meal ticket.
▪ It's amazing what some men will do for a meal ticket.
▪ It only became a moot point because David was a meal ticket for so many people.
times
▪ These include meal times, evening, going to and getting up from bed.
▪ So I only met her at meal times, when the community got together, and so on.
▪ His sister Elizabeth remembered that as a child he half closed his eyes at meal times as he sat with his family.
▪ The nappy changes, the meal times, the endless trips round supermarkets, school times, getting dressed and so on?
▪ No doubt, as meal times were such a major effort, people were less self-conscious about weight or diet.
▪ Encourage anyone who wishes, to help at meal times either by preparing, serving or clearing away.
▪ Wards are mixed and many of us only see a nurse at meal times.
▪ What little service there is at meal times also leaves much to be desired.
■ VERB
cook
▪ At this point the watchman came out of his hut where he seemed to have been cooking himself a tasty meal.
▪ In the Old Country people developed a special taste for TSHUHlnt, since it was different from ordinary cooked meals.
▪ Many of the disabled people who use the centre cook their own meals in the kitchen.
▪ We resolve to cook our own meals.
▪ From now on the regime was just one cooked meal in the evening.
▪ Back at the tent it is getting late, so I set up the Trangia and cook myself a meal.
▪ Item: In Southern California, an inattentive tenant cooking a meal caused a grease fire.
eat
▪ Indigestion and constipation After eating the meal, the food must now be digested.
▪ People ate lugubrious meals around the waterfalls, their faces green with marine sorrow.
▪ She normally eats three meals a day but sometimes misses breakfast.
▪ Indeed, eating large meals can be a health hazard.
▪ On the road, the girls sleep ten hours a night, eat many and formidable meals and take long afternoon naps.
▪ Agnes Resker refused to eat anything, while Mavis Pellington ate her meal in silence.
▪ We ate beautifully prepared vegetarian meals.
eaten
▪ They had eaten the delicious meal to the sound of the river flowing past while the sun faded behind the skyline.
▪ He had evidently just eaten a meal, for the remains of it lay in a red handkerchief open on the ground.
▪ Then there is the grapefruit diet where grapefruit is eaten before each meal.
▪ When they had eaten their meal of wheat ro and milk they kept the fire going for a long time.
▪ These snacks may be eaten either between meals or at mealtimes if you prefer.
enjoy
▪ He may come in for a steak, but he wants to take his time and enjoy a leisurely meal.
▪ I struggled to remember the last time I had enjoyed a meal so thoroughly from start to finish.
▪ I don't think I've ever enjoyed a meal so much.
▪ I hope you enjoyed your meal.
▪ Once the hostess appeared to ask if we were enjoying our meals, and I managed to give her a silent nod.
▪ Zelah was a good cook and he enjoyed the meal.
▪ All in all, Fred was a good sport and said he enjoyed the meal.
finish
▪ Simple reward charts can be used to reinforce either sitting at the table or finishing a meal for the 3-year-old and older.
▪ He looked baffled and hungry, and Archer reflected that he would probably finish his meal on Ellen Olenska.
▪ They finished their meal and went to a small hotel where they made love.
▪ We had just finished our evening meal of a bowl of soup and some biscuits.
▪ Meryl finished her own meal and stood up in a leisurely fashion.
▪ Then we would both kneel, waiting for the spirits to finish their meal.
▪ The refreshing Glazed Lemon Puddings finish off this meal perfectly.
▪ You can also add activators such as garden soil, finished compost, bone meal and blood meal to stimulate the action.
include
▪ Eat, drink and be merry at the Medieval Night which includes a meal, free drinks and an open-air castle disco.
▪ Weekends are $ 225 a person and include lodging, Saturday meals and Sunday breakfast and the workshop.
▪ It includes all meals and drinks, including cocktails, as well as windsurfing, sailing, scuba diving lessons and snorkelling.
▪ Cost: $ 2, 300 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, ground transportation and sightseeing.
▪ Every date would include a meal, a movie and a strip search.
▪ Cost: $ 275 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations and some meals.
▪ The price, which includes accommodation, meals and all course literature, is £295 per person; £420 per couple.
▪ Land costs are $ 700 to $ 850, including meals, seminars, meetings with local residents.
make
▪ A bird that thought so and decided to make a meal of it would quickly die.
▪ Or they make a sumptuous meal and they work very hard and watch their children and wait for their men.
▪ Using leftovers and store cupboard items, you will have made a meal that many people pay several pounds for in restaurants.
▪ He can make a very good meal off a traveler, I understand.
▪ We discovered that some had already found their way through our boots and were making a tasty meal out of our feet.
▪ Freeze bits of leftovers that are too small to make into a meal.
▪ I don't know what animal it was, but it made a good meal.
▪ Looking for a creative way to make a meal out of leftover scraps of ham, turkey or pork roast?
offer
▪ The Rockendorfs have abolished the conventional menu, offering three set meals at lunchtime and two later on.
▪ Grave sites are swept, flowers placed, food offered, meals arranged at the headstones.
▪ Prue Hines is the cook, offering a four-course meal in the evening accompanied by fine china and candlelight.
▪ The folks who ran the place were nice enough, offering me a free meal next time.
▪ Facilities include a cosy rustic bar, a livelier pub, plus a traditional stuberl restaurant offering alacarte meals.
▪ But I was offering a meal that didn't run any cholesterol risks.
▪ A plan to reduce the quantity of drink Ben had during the day and to offer drinks only after meals was implemented.
▪ The Coach House and Buttery restaurants offer delicious meals and refreshments.
order
▪ It was like wading through treacle just to order a meal.
▪ You order your meal from the tablecloth, which is stained.
▪ You order your meals, after all.
▪ We could order meals from outside and buy fresh fruits, candies, and toiletries.
▪ He ordered his meal of cod and chips and no vinegar, then sat down to await its arrival.
prepare
▪ By the time Eline came home at dinner time, Nina had prepared a meal of bread and cheese.
▪ Working in the kitchen to prepare a meal provides opportunities to learn about weights, measures, and fractions-and cooperation.
▪ Following each class, guests share the prepared meal, accompanied by the appropriate wines.
▪ Yet these men not only prepared their own meals but they invited women to share the meals with them.
▪ Whenever I did succeed in preparing a family meal, I insisted that everyone eat whatever was placed on her/his plate.
▪ When he was home, we prepared his meals and served him first.
▪ Rosalind bakes her own bread and croissants and will prepare an evening meal with advance notice.
▪ We ate beautifully prepared vegetarian meals.
provide
▪ Many of the exotic fruits may provide a wonderful meal for the traveller, but some contain a deadly poison.
▪ His condition: Provide 100 meals for poor people each year.
▪ The Captain's Table provided an agreeable meal, with attentive service.
▪ In Seattle, most emergency meal programs can not provide three meals a day, seven days a week.
▪ Pates and terrines, a useful standby, provide an adequate meal when accompanied by good bread and a salad.
▪ All flights into the United States are nonsmoking and provide the usual meals, entertainment and other amenities.
▪ Each victim has to be tracked and killed and yet it provides only a small meal.
▪ Lois's arrival had provided him regular meals and meaningful work.
serve
▪ I think you should serve my meal first as penance.
▪ From seven grateful clients, Project Open Hand soon grew to a charity serving eight thousand meals a day.
▪ In those days we served hot meals to everyone on each flight.
▪ Across the road from the White Horse Inn - a family run pub serving lunches and evening meals.
▪ Several small restaurants at the swimming area serve full meals and cold beer.
▪ With such a disturbing audience of one, Leonora took far longer than intended to serve the meal.
▪ This delightful eating and drinking establishment serves wonderful meals outside on a back deck surrounded lush green lawns and towering trees.
share
▪ Following each class, guests share the prepared meal, accompanied by the appropriate wines.
▪ When the little gray man appeared to him, kind Simpleton agreed to share his meal.
▪ It was years since anyone had shared a meal with him.
▪ Yet these men not only prepared their own meals but they invited women to share the meals with them.
▪ Berowne had asked him in out of the cold to share his meal.
▪ She had shared this meal with my father.
▪ The convent became more open, family and friends came in to share meals and conversation.
▪ She obviously wasn't good enough to share a meal with!
take
▪ The school has 1,308 on roll and 30 per cent take free school meals.
▪ All patients would be required to take their meals in the cafeteria.
▪ Figure 8.13 shows the national averages for various ways of taking meals at school.
▪ The engineer who lived here, Stanislas Kalbe, took his meals with us too.
▪ We rented a plot of land and so I would have to take the meal out to my husband at mid-day.
▪ He took his meals with the slaves.
▪ Trade having been done, they settled to take the meal, to eat, to indicate their good intentions.
▪ He lived among them, took his meals with them in the dining-room, and trained them as after-dinner speakers and lecturers.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a barium meal/enema/swallow
▪ During the pre-operative period Mr Reynolds also have several investigations performed, including a barium enema and a sigmoidoscopy and biopsy.
▪ I was in the process of administering a barium enema.
▪ If the patient is over 40 or has risk factors for colon carcinoma, a barium enema is prudent.
▪ Oesophageal radionuclide transit was evaluated in 15 patients and a barium meal was performed in five cases to confirm endoscopical findings.
▪ So I went to see a man in Devonshire Place and he sent me down the road for a barium meal X-ray.
▪ The following year the surgeon arranged an x ray of her lumbar spine and a barium meal, which were normal.
▪ Three patients refused endoscopy, two refused sigmoidoscopy, and nine patients refused to have a barium enema or colonoscopic examination.
slap-up meal/dinner etc
▪ I shall award a slap-up dinner at Jamash, our local Balti restaurant, to the winner.
square meal
▪ Indeed he often gave them whatever was in the till, feeling they looked in need of a square meal.
▪ So a catastrophic drop to 5 percent of its pre-deluge invertebrate quantities still provided them with three square meals a day.
▪ Some days he ate three square meals; sometimes he barely stopped to shove a doughnut into his mouth.
▪ When making wraps at home, the following tips will simplify rolling or wrapping these scrumptious square meals.
stand sb a drink/meal etc
▪ A minute or two later-they are standing, drinking wine before dinner.
▪ He and Rufus had stood there drinking wine.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a five-course gourmet meal
▪ I usually have one meal a day with Mom and Dad.
▪ It's eight dollars for my meal, without the tip.
▪ It was Lisa's birthday so we took her out for a meal.
▪ Jeff cooked us a delicious meal last night.
▪ Miriam was silent all through the meal.
▪ The hotel was nice, and the meals were really good.
▪ We had an excellent meal in a Chinese restaurant.
▪ We usually have our main meal in the middle of the day.
▪ Would you like to go out for a meal sometime, Emma?
▪ You shouldn't exercise after a big meal.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All meals are available in the Feathertonehaugh dining room.
▪ From seven grateful clients, Project Open Hand soon grew to a charity serving eight thousand meals a day.
▪ Having informed him that the evening meal was at eight, the proprietor took himself off, leaving Karelius with his thoughts.
▪ Many of these patients claim that they can not be fat because they eat only one meal a day.
▪ She began to cook the meal, briefly wondering how her own household was coping without her.
▪ The other things must be matters connected with the sacred meal.
▪ Wipe kitchen counters after each meal.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Meal

Meal \Meal\, n. [OE. mel; akin to E. meal a part, and to D. maal time, meal, G. mal time, mahl meal, Icel. m[=a]l measure, time, meal, Goth. m[=e]l time, and to E. measure. See Measure.] The portion of food taken at a particular time for the satisfaction of appetite; the quantity usually taken at one time with the purpose of satisfying hunger; a repast; the act or time of eating a meal; as, the traveler has not eaten a good meal for a week; there was silence during the meal.

What strange fish Hath made his meal on thee?
--Shak.

Meal

Meal \Meal\, n. [OE. mele, AS. melu, melo; akin to D. meel, G. mehl, OHG. melo, Icel. mj["o]l, SW. mj["o]l, Dan. meel, also to D. malen to grind, G. mahlen, OHG., OS., & Goth. malan, Icel. mala, W. malu, L. molere, Gr. my`lh mill, and E. mill. [root]108. Cf. Mill, Mold soil, Mole an animal, Immolate, Molar.]

  1. Grain (esp. maize, rye, or oats) that is coarsely ground and unbolted; also, a kind of flour made from beans, pease, etc.; sometimes, any flour, esp. if coarse.

  2. Any substance that is coarsely pulverized like meal, but not granulated.

    Meal beetle (Zo["o]l.), the adult of the meal worm. See Meal worm, below.

    Meal moth (Zo["o]l.), a lepidopterous insect ( Asopia farinalis), the larv[ae] of which feed upon meal, flour, etc.

    Meal worm (Zo["o]l.), the larva of a beetle ( Tenebrio molitor) which infests granaries, bakehouses, etc., and is very injurious to flour and meal.

Meal

Meal \Meal\, v. t.

  1. To sprinkle with, or as with, meal.
    --Shak.

  2. To pulverize; as, mealed powder.

Meal

Meal \Meal\ (m[=e]l), n. [OE. mele, AS. m[=ae]l part, portion, portion of time; akin to E. meal a repast. Cf. Piecemeal.] A part; a fragment; a portion. [Obs.]

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
meal

"food; time for eating," c.1200 (perhaps late Old English), mel "appointed time for eating," also "a meal, feast," from Old English mæl "fixed time, occasion, a meal," from Proto-Germanic *mæla- (cognates: Old Frisian mel "time;" Middle Dutch mael, Dutch maal "time, meal;" Old Norse mal "measure, time, meal;" German Mal "time," Mahl "meal;" Gothic mel "time, hour"), from PIE *me-lo-, from root *me- "to measure" (see meter (n.2)). Original sense of "time" is preserved in piecemeal. Meals-on-wheels attested from 1961. Meal ticket first attested 1870 in literal sense of "ticket of admission to a dining hall;" figurative sense of "source of income or livelihood" is from 1899.

meal

"edible ground grain," Old English melu "meal, flour," from Proto-Germanic *melwan "grind" (cognates: Old Frisian mele "meal," Old Saxon melo, Middle Dutch mele, Dutch meel, Old High German melo, German Mehl, Old Norse mjöl "meal;" Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic malan "to grind," German mahlen), from PIE root *mel- (1) "soft" (see mallet).

Wiktionary
meal

Etymology 1 n. (senseid en food that is prepared and eaten)food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time (e.g. breakfast = morning meal, lunch = noon meal, etc). Etymology 2

n. The coarse-ground edible part of various grains often used to feed animals; flour. Etymology 3

n. 1 (context UK dialectal English) A speck or spot. 2 A part; a fragment; a portion. vb. (context transitive English) To defile or taint.

Related phrases:
WordNet
meal

  1. n. the food served and eaten at one time [syn: repast]

  2. any of the occasions for eating food that occur by custom or habit at more or less fixed times

  3. coarsely ground foodstuff; especially seeds of various cereal grasses or pulse

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Meal

A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes specific, prepared food, or the food eaten on that occasion. The names used for specific meals in English vary greatly, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.

Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day. Special meals are usually held in conjunction with such occasions as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and holidays. A meal is different from a snack in that meals are generally larger, more varied, and more filling than snacks.

The type of meal served or eaten at any given time varies by custom and location. In most modern cultures, three main meals are eaten: in the morning, early afternoon, and evening. Further, the names of meals are often interchangeable by custom as well. Some serve dinner as the main meal at midday, with supper as the late afternoon/early evening meal; while others may call their midday meal lunch and their early evening meal supper. Except for "breakfast", these names can vary from region to region or even from family to family.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "meal".

The Abies children would be turned over to their maternal grandparents following a nutritious meal, routine physical and psychological examinations, and subsequent individual questioning.

The outlets I depend on, use for survival and have become addicted to are gone, replaced by Doctors and Nurses and Counselors and Rules and Regulations and Pills and Lectures and Mandatory Meals and Jobs in the morning and none of them do a fucking thing for me.

The seventeen doomed men were offered a meal and an opportunity to speak with a priest before they were lined up along an adobe wall and shot.

The Federicos were impressed and adulatory, proposing toast after toast from the jeroboam of Mouton Cadet they had contributed to the meal.

Hence, the palpitation of the heart, dyspepsia or acute attacks of indigestion, with colicky pains and heaviness after meals, with eructations or belchings of gas, or local discomfort and unnatural action affecting, at different times, almost every organ of the body.

At the Albergo Monte Gazza, they were assured, there would be a meal ready for them, in spite of the late hour.

Wethis was busy setting out the meal on a round table at the center of the room and nodded pleasantly to Alec as they entered.

Lynn Flewelling Stopping just long enough for a bath and a hasty meal, Seregil and Alec were ready to move on by noon.

Wulfston, Torio, Rolf, Melissa, Lenardo, Aradia, and Masters Amicus and Corus were gathered for a sumptuous meal in the great hall.

He left the tent and, seeing Amine by the fire, asked her to bring in the morning meal.

Wi mi scanty, hard won meal, One thowt still shall mak me glad, Thankful that alone aw feel What it is to tew an' strive Just to keep a soul alive.

Waiting every day from the ninth hour onward to see if her husband would come home for dinner, postponing the meal a few minutes only at a time, she drove her appallingly expensive cook mad, and all too often ended in sniffling her way through a solitary repast designed to revive the vanished appetite of a glutton emerging from a fasting cure.

The stranger worked alone, and he had resumed his usual life, never appearing at meals, sleeping under the trees in the plateau, never mingling with his companions.

Two horses, a pair of riders, surrounded by the gang of aqueduct workers who had abandoned their evening meal to listen to what was happening.

The supper was a stew of beans, rice and salt beef, and it was at the end of the small meal, when they were sharing a canteen of arrack, that Sergeant Hakeswill appeared.