catering

Pluralcaterings (some meanings)

1. 1
   nounUSuncountable

   The business of supplying food and related services for weddings, parties, and other special occasions.

   After years in restaurants, he moved into catering for corporate events.

   Their catering company handles everything from setup to cleanup for large receptions.

   Note

   In American English the word narrows to the event trade: weddings, receptions, corporate functions. A US restaurant that also does catering runs a side business supplying events, not its own dining room. The wider everyday trade of feeding schools and workplaces belongs to the British and Philippine sense, so the same sentence can carry two scopes depending on where it was written.

2. 2
   nounPhilippinesUKuncountable

   The business of providing food and related services, including the preparation and supply of meals; foodservice.

   The firm built its reputation on catering for schools and care homes across the region.

   A national catering contractor took over the staff canteen last year.

   Similarfoodservice

   Note

   Where British and Philippine English use it, the word covers the whole food trade, not just parties. A school kitchen, a staff canteen and a national contract caterer all count, which is why foodservice can stand in for it. American English narrows the same word to the special-occasion business, so a British phrase like the catering industry should be read as the broad trade.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The act of providing for or attending to particular needs, tastes, or demands.

   Critics accused the magazine of shameless catering to its largest advertisers.

   The committee's catering to special interests slowly eroded public trust.

   Similarindulgence

   Note

   Here the word names a single act of indulging someone, and it can take a plural. The Dental Cosmos of 1864 scorns "catchpenny caterings to the prejudices and jealousies of the uninformed." It is followed by to, and the company it keeps, such as prejudices, advertisers and special interests, gives it a disapproving edge. In neutral prose, serving or providing for usually sounds fairer.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of cater.

   A local firm is catering the conference dinner this evening.

   She enjoys catering to guests with unusual dietary needs.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty, so the verb in "she is catering the dinner" shares its spelling with the noun in "the catering was superb." As a verb it can take a direct object, as in catering a wedding, or work without one. With to, as in catering to every whim, it moves into the figurative sense of supplying what is wanted, which can mean pandering.

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