undermeal
undermeal noun: synonym of undern: originally terce and the morning, later (UK, dialectal, obsolete) noon and the early afternoon.
Noun
undermeal (plural undermeals)
- Synonym of undern: originally terce and the morning, later (UK, dialectal, obsolete) noon and the early afternoon.
- By the time—he hath din'd at a taverne, and slept his undermeals at a bawdy-house, his purse is [empty].1599, Nash, Leuten Stuff
- Synonyms:
- undern
- Synonym of siesta: an afternoon nap.
- In a narrower limit than the forty years' undermeal of the seven sleepers.1599, Nash, Leuten Stuff
- An afternoon meal or snack.
- Another great supper, or undermeal, was made ready for them, coming home from ditching and plowing.1608, Withals
- I think I am furnished for [=with] Cather'ne pears, [enough] for one undermeal.c. 1614-1631, Ben Johnson, Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy
- Synonyms:
- meal
Synonyms of undermeal
Forms of undermeal
| plural | undermeals |
|---|
Origin of undermeal
From Middle English undermele, undermel (“the early part of the afternoon, midday, noon; an afternoon meal or nap”), from Old English undernmǣl (“morning, morning time; morning meal”), equivalent to undern + meal. Compare the word for midday and the word undern.
Questions about undermeal
- What does undermeal mean?
- Undermeal means synonym of undern: originally terce and the morning, later (UK, dialectal, obsolete) noon and the early afternoon.
- What part of speech is undermeal?
- Undermeal is a noun.
- What is the plural of undermeal?
- The plural of undermeal is undermeals.
Words near undermeal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: undermeal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “undermeal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/undermeal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.