lunch
//lʌnt͡ʃ//
Forms
- Plural
- lunches
- present (v1)
- lunch
- past (v2)
- lunched
- past participle (v3)
- lunched
- present participle
- lunching
- 3rd person singular
- lunches
Definitions
1.A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.
- We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.
2.A break in play between the first and second sessions.
- We'll eat lunch together at 12:30.
- Did Tom have sandwiches for lunch?
- We will eat lunch together at 12:30.
3.Any small meal, especially one eaten at a social gathering.
- After the funeral there was a lunch for those who didn't go to the cemetery.
1.To eat lunch.
- I like to lunch in Italian restaurants.
- Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.
- The gentleman had left for London after lunch. Yes, alone; but he had lunched in the hotel with a lady.
2.To treat to lunch.
- We dined him, we lunched him, we were photographed in his company by flashlight.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1698
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
Recorded since 1580 in the sense “piece, hunk”. The word luncheon with the same meaning is presumably an extension on the pattern of puncheon (“cask”) and truncheon (“cudgel”). But earliest found forms of luncheon include lunshin and lunching, which are equivalent to lunch + -ing, with the suffix -ing possibly later modified to imitate a French origin.