meal
//ˈmiːl//
Forms
- Plural
- meals
- present (v1)
- meal
- past (v2)
- mealed
- past participle (v3)
- mealed
- present participle
- mealing
- 3rd person singular
- meals
Definitions
1.Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
- Breakfast is the morning meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner, or supper, is the evening meal.
- After the meal, he rinsed the cans they had eaten from (marveling again at his own water extravagance), and when he turned around, Jake was asleep again.
2.Food served or eaten as a repast.
- This is the meal pleasantly set . . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger, / It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous . .
- Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans, and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
3.A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.(informal)
- “I was on meal when I heard the call on the radio and recognized the address. What the hell?”
4.The ground-up edible part of various grains, used as a basis of food or feed; either flour or a coarser blend than flour (usage varies).
- We eat a meal three times a day.
- I'd like my coffee after the meal.
- We generally drink tea after a meal.
1.To defile or taint.
- Were he meal'd with that / Which he corrects, than were he tyrannous.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1871
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
Etymology
From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”).