Meaning of meal in English

meal

noun

/mɪəl/ us

/miːl/

meal noun (FOOD)

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A1 [ C ]

an occasion when food is eaten, or the food that is eaten on such an occasion:

hot meal The charity is providing hot meals for people living on the streets.

a three-course meal

heavy meal Avoid eating a heavy (= large) meal before you go swimming.

light meal I try to eat three light (= small) meals a day.

main meal I have my main meal at midday.

three-course meal Guests enjoyed a delicious three-course meal.

How about coming over for a meal sometime?

More examplesFewer examples

That was the worst meal I've ever eaten.
Every so often I treat myself to a meal in an expensive restaurant.
Do you fancy going out for a meal after work?
You should always wash your hands before meals.
If you eat three good meals a day, you're less likely to snack on biscuits and crisps.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Meals & parts of meals

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meal noun (POWDER)

[ U ]

a substance that has been crushed to make a rough powder, especially plant seeds crushed to make flour or for animal food:

bone meal

corn meal

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Flour & yeast

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Idiom

make a meal (out) of something

(Definition of meal from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

meal | American Dictionary

meal

noun

/mil/

meal noun (FOOD)

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[ C ]

an occasion when food is served or eaten, esp. breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or the food itself on such an occasion:

I don’t enjoy preparing three meals a day every day.

meal noun (POWDER)

[ U ]

a substance that has been crushed to make a rough powder, esp. plant seeds crushed to make flour or for animal food

(Definition of meal from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

meal | Business English

meal

noun

/miːl/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C ]

an occasion when food is eaten, or the food which is eaten on such an occasion:

go out/take sb out for a meal He took the whole team out for a meal at the end of the project.

have/eat a meal I have my main meal at midday.

a heavy/light/hot meal

a three-course meal

[ U ]

a substance which has been crushed to make a rough powder, especially plant seeds crushed to make flour or for animal food:

bone meal

soya meal

See also

ready meal

(Definition of meal from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of meal

meal

He surveys the sacred meals against a carefully assembled background of ordinary meal-taking and the general philosophy of food in each region.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

His argument is sometimes intricate and often subtle - but now and then it makes a meal of the obvious.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If patients are at the hospital over lunchtime they are served a meal by the nurses, who are assisted by nurse's aides.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Examples of commercial businesses contracting to government agencies and private individuals are found in social care and school meals provision.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The variation in the meal terms described has been registered in lexicographic works with unequal attention.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Self-reported washing of hands before meals did not show any association with illness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Seeing his slovenly and quarrelsome wife's face, he leaves his meal and goes outside.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After his sheep had been sheared, tables were set up and a tremendous meal was served, in clear sight of the demolished graves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The participants were asked to agree to be videotaped during the meals when they were not in a hurry.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Creative approaches to funding the cost of accommodation, meals and transport should be explored by local authorities, home managers and voluntary organisations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Standard deviations (based on five subsamples taken from the same lot of bulked meal) are shown in parentheses following means.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In contrast to these observations of the play task, there were few differences between groups during the meal.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They took their own elderly parents out for meals, and created opportunities for their children to have more contacts with the older generation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To clarify further, home maintenance and housekeeping included preparing meals, laundry, cleaning, childcare, gardening, pet care, home repairs, and paperwork.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He now lives in a rooming house, but no meals are provided.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of meal

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with meal

meal

These are words often used in combination with meal.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

cheap meal

They are the cuts that will produce a good and cheap meal.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

cooked meal

It is for her family the difference between one cooked meal a day and none.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

daily meal

A big part of the daily meal is bread.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with meal

What is the pronunciation of meal?

Translations of meal

in Chinese (Traditional)

食物, 進餐, 餐，一頓飯…

Meaning of meal in English

meal noun (FOOD)

meal noun (POWDER)

Idiom

meal | American Dictionary

meal noun (FOOD)

meal noun (POWDER)

meal | Business English

Examples of meal

Collocations with meal

meal

Translations of meal

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