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lunch

LUNCH/lʌnt͡ʃ/

Plurallunches

Verblunches, lunching, lunched

6 meanings of lunch

Practice

  1. 1
    midday mealnouncountable or uncountable
    A meal eaten around the middle of the day, typically lighter than the main meal.

    The cafe serves a set lunch every weekday afternoon.

    After a long morning, they stopped for lunch at a roadside diner.

    UsageNo article in have lunch, for lunch, at lunch; use a with a describing word: a quick lunch.

    Note

    The everyday meal word has a humbler beginning. When it first turns up, in 1591, it means a piece or hunk of food, the sense that survives only as the obsolete 'hunk' meaning.

  2. 2
    verbintransitive
    Of a person or group, to eat their midday meal, whether at home, at work, or out.

    The executives lunch at the same club every Friday.

    We lunched on the terrace overlooking the sea.

    UsageUsually lunch with someone; lunch on can name the food (lunched on soup) or the place (on the terrace).

    Similardine, eat

    Note

    Frank Sidgwick's Love and Battles (1909) has a gentleman who "lunched in the hotel with a lady," and in Cole Porter's Miss Otis Regrets (1934) Miss Otis sends word that she will not be lunching that day. It is often a social verb, more about company and place than food. Put a guest directly after it and it becomes the treating sense.

  3. 3
    treat someoneverbtransitive
    To treat someone to lunch, usually by paying for it oneself.

    The publisher lunched the visiting authors at an expensive restaurant.

    Firms often lunch prospective clients to seal a partnership.

    UsageThe guest is the object: to lunch someone is to treat them; to eat together, say lunch with someone.

    Similartreat, entertain, host

    Note

    Here the object is the guest and the subject is the host. H. G. Wells, in The Future in America (1906), writes "We dined him, we lunched him." The pairing with dine shows the pattern: both verbs turn a meal into hospitality done to someone.

  4. 4
    refreshmentsnounUSCanadacountable
    A small meal or snack, especially one served to guests at a social gathering.

    The card club paused around ten for a lunch of bars and coffee.

    After the evening card game, our hosts brought out a lunch of coffee, squares, and cold cuts before everyone drove home.

    UsageUsed for food at any hour, often as a lunch of something: a lunch of coffee and sandwiches after the game.

    Similarsnack, collation

    Note

    In parts of the northern United States and Canada, a lunch can come at any hour: the food set out after a funeral, or the plate offered to visitors. L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908) has Anne pressing "a lunch" on Diana when she will not stay for tea.

  5. 5
    cricket breaknoununcountable
    In cricket, the scheduled interval in a day's play that falls after the first session and before the second.

    England were two wickets down at lunch on the opening day.

    The batters walked off at lunch with the score on 98 for two, and the bowlers had yet to find any swing.

    UsageUsually no article: at lunch, before lunch, after lunch, as in two wickets down at lunch.

    Similarinterval, break

Less common meaning

  1. 6
    nounobsoletecountable
    A thin slice or thick hunk of something edible, such as bread or meat.
    Note

    Gone from the language now, this meaning still catches readers of older prose. In that prose, a lunch of bread is a hunk you hold in your hand, not a meal you sit down to. It typically takes of plus the food. The spelling is identical to the modern word, so context is the only guide, and how it connects to the midday meal is still uncertain.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The sense meaning a piece or hunk of food is obsolete. dchp.arts.ubc.ca
    • Historical lunch could denote a hunk of food, with the same spelling and an of-complement naming the food. en.wikipedia.org
    • That connection does not exhaust the word’s history: its deeper origin and its relationship to luncheon are uncertain. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of lunch apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

First recorded in 1591 in the sense "piece, hunk," the word is linked to "luncheon," possibly formed on the pattern of "puncheon" and "truncheon." The meaning "light meal" appears for "luncheon" in 1652 and for "lunch" by 1776, so in that sense "lunch" may be a shortening of "luncheon," though which word came first is unclear. It may derive from "lump" (as "hunch" comes from "hump") or from Spanish lonja ("a slice," literally "loin"), or be connected with "nuncheon" (Middle English nonechenche, "a light refreshment").

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • The opened source dates lunch in this sense to 1591. en.wikipedia.org
  • Lunch is related to luncheon, which may have been formed by analogy with puncheon and truncheon. en.wikipedia.org
  • The meal sense is documented in a 1776 entry by William Marshall, published in 1778, well before 1829. en.wikipedia.org
  • Lunch may derive from lump. en.wikipedia.org
  • Spanish lonja means a slice. en.wiktionary.org
  • The opened source derives this word from French longe, the feminine of lonc, meaning long; remove the literal gloss loin. en.wiktionary.org