diet
Pluraldiets
Pluraldiets
- 1The range of food and drink that a person or animal regularly consumes.
Coastal communities often have a diet rich in fish and shellfish.
Researchers studied how the animals' diets changed across the seasons.
UsageA diet rich in or high in something; an animal lives on a diet of bamboo.
Similarfood, nourishment
Note
In laboratory animal care it works as a mass noun for the feed itself. Buckland, Hall, Mowlem and Whatley's A Guide to Laboratory Animal Technology (1981) advises ordering "no more diet than will be used within one month."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The book advises ordering no more diet than will be used within one month. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A controlled plan of food and drink choices, followed to gain or lose weight or otherwise affect one's health.
The clinic designed a diet aimed at lowering his cholesterol.
Many fad diets promise rapid results but rarely deliver lasting change.
UsageYou go on a diet or are on a diet, often a low-salt diet or similar; the activity itself is dieting.
- 3To control what one eats and drinks in order to lose or gain weight, or to improve one's health.
He decided to diet seriously after his last checkup.
Many people diet in January only to give up by February.
Similarslim
- 4Of a food or drink, containing less fat, salt, sugar, or calories than usual, or claimed to do so.
The store stocks several diet sodas alongside the regular ones.
He prefers diet versions of his favorite drinks.
UsageUsually before a noun: diet soda, the diet version of a drink.
Similarlow-calorie, light, sugar-free
Oppositeregular
Note
It does not normally grade, since a product is diet or it is not. That is why Lonely Planet Peru (2010) can joke about "not-very-diet" ice cream. The "claimed" part matters too: Consumer Guide's Dieter's Complete Guide (1982) found "diet" hamburger usually still at least 10 percent fat.
- 5Any regular intake or consumption, especially viewed as a habitual pattern.
Her diet of nineteenth-century novels shaped how she wrote.
Children raised on a diet of screen time may struggle to focus.
UsageUsually a diet of something, often a steady diet of news, films or novels.
Similarfare
Note
It can also sit behind a noun, as in Farhad Manjoo's "our nation's media diet" (2021). The food image stays faintly audible: habit is pictured as nourishment.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Farhad Manjoo used "our nation's media diet" in 2021; Wiktionary attributes the passage to his February 3, 2021 article "Can We Please Stop Talking About Stocks, Please?". en.wiktionary.org
- 6A formal assembly of leaders or representatives gathered for deliberation, in some countries the national legislature.
The imperial diet convened to debate the new law.
Members of the diet argued for hours before reaching a compromise.
Similarassembly, parliament, legislature, council, congress
Note
A separate word that shares its spelling with the food sense and even its Greek root, díaita, behind the everyday food meaning. Medieval Latin diēta meant a public assembly or a set day, and its sense was pulled toward Latin diēs, "day." As a proper name it is capitalized, as in the National Diet of Japan. As a common noun it stays lowercase, as in diet committees.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The assembly word and the food word share the Greek root díaita. en.wiktionary.org
- Medieval Latin diēta meant a public assembly or an appointed day. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin diēs, meaning day, influenced the assembly word. en.wikipedia.org
- Japan has an institution called the National Diet. shugiin.go.jp
Less common meanings
- 7Of something, presented as a reduced or watered-down version, with certain features removed.
Reviewers dismissed the budget phone as a diet rendition of the flagship.
The reboot felt like diet nostalgia, missing what made the original great.
UsageUsually dismissive, placed before a noun or in a diet version of something.
Similarlite
Note
The supermarket label turned on ideas, products and beliefs. "Diet Christianity" is modeled on diet soda: the original with its substance taken out. Calling something diet implies it was thinned for those who "can't handle the Whole Meal." Compare the literal food label.
- 8To regulate another person's food intake; to put someone on a controlled regimen of eating.
When all signs of effusion, dulness, pain, œgophony, and cough had disappeared he was dieted, stimulated, and tonicked.
1887, Medical Press and Circularthey will diet themselves, feed and live alone.
Note
A transitive use that now sounds old-fashioned, at home in older medical prose. The Medical Press and Circular of 1887 reports a patient who "was dieted, stimulated, and tonicked." It can also be reflexive, as when people "diet themselves." Modern English says put someone on a diet instead. It keeps the intransitive verb for what people do to their own eating.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The Medical Press and Circular published the quoted description of a patient's treatment in 1887. en.wiktionary.org
- The reflexive wording “diet themselves” is attested. gutenberg.org
- 9A scheduled session or sitting of examinations.
She passed every paper in the spring diet.
Students who fell ill before the main diet were given a later sitting.
Note
In Scotland, exams come in diets, and the main school diet normally begins towards the end of April. The word keeps the old idea of an appointed day traced at the assembly sense. Elsewhere the same thing would be called an exam session or sitting.
- 10To eat one's meals; to take regular food.
Note
An obsolete use for simply taking one's meals, usually somewhere in particular. Francis Bacon's "Of Travel" (1625) tells the traveler to "diet in such places, where there is good company of the nation," so eating becomes a way into local society. A modern reader may hear restraint where Bacon meant only eating.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- An obsolete sense of diet means simply to eat or take one's meals. en.wiktionary.org
- Francis Bacon wrote Of Travel, first published in 1625. artoftravel.universityofgalway.ie
- Bacon uses the quoted wording to recommend eating where the traveler can meet local people. gutenberg.org
- 11To cause a person or animal to take food; to feed them.
Note
Feeding carried into the figurative, as in Shakespeare's Othello (1622). There Iago is "partly led to diet my revenge," nourishing a grudge as one would feed a creature. The verb is transitive, with the thing fed as its object. In this passage it should be read as feed, rather than restrict.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- William Shakespeare wrote Othello. shakespearedocumented.folger.edu
- Othello was first published in 1622; c. 1603–1604 refers to its composition. shakespearedocumented.folger.edu
- The quotation occurs in Othello; its speaker is Iago. folger.edu
- Diet here figuratively means feed and takes revenge as its direct object. en.wiktionary.org
- Feed is appropriate here, but older texts also use diet to mean limit or restrict, as in All's Well That Ends Well. davidcrystal.com
- 12A sitting of a criminal court; a fixed stage in criminal proceedings.
- 13A clerical service or ecclesiastical function, especially a church service in Scottish usage.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Ancient Greek díaita passed into Latin as diaeta and into Medieval Latin as dieta, meaning regimen or assembly. From there it went to Old French diete and Middle English diet.
Medieval Latin diētāre and Old French dïeter both fed into Middle English dieten, from which this verb comes.
Ancient Greek díaita (way of living, decision, judgment) became Medieval Latin diēta or diaeta, which meant a public assembly, a set day of trial, or a day's journey and was influenced by Latin diēs (day). It then passed through Old French diete into Middle English diet.