meals

Noun (1)

meal (countable and uncountable, plural meals)

1. (countable) 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.
2. (countable) Food served or eaten as a repast.
   • a1450, The Macro Playsː
     If thou wilt fare well at meat and meal, come and follow me.
3. (informal, uncountable) A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.
   • They [tape recorders] can be turned off while officers are on meal or in the car to protect their private conversations […]1994, Brooklyn Barrister, volume 46, page 13
4. (countable, obsolete) A time or an occasion.
   • Ye wolde wepe at every mele;
     But for my sone wepe ye never a dele.
     You would weep at every meal, but for my son you never weep a deal.The Lamentation of the Virgin Mary (MS. Cantab., Ff. ii., 38, fol. 47.), in: 1847, Thomas Wright (editor), The Chester Plays: A Collection of Mysteries founded upon scriptural Subjects, and formerly...

Noun (2)

meal (countable and uncountable, plural meals)

1. 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).
   • Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to...2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
2. Any of various similarly granular materials prepared from other sources, such as bones or wood.

See all 11 meanings of meal