# lunch

Pronunciation: say "LUNCH" /lʌnt͡ʃ/

## Noun

1. A meal eaten around the middle of the day, typically lighter than the main meal.
   - Simple: A meal eaten in the middle of the day, often a light one.
   - _The cafe serves a set lunch every weekday afternoon._
   - _After a long morning, they stopped for lunch at a roadside diner._
4. A small meal or snack, especially one served to guests at a social gathering. *(US, Canada)*
   - Simple: Any small meal or snack, often one served to guests at a 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._
5. In cricket, the scheduled interval in a day's play that falls after the first session and before the second.
   - Simple: In cricket, the rest break taken between the first and second sessions of play.
   - _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._

## Verb

2. Of a person or group, to eat their midday meal, whether at home, at work, or out.
   - Simple: To eat your midday meal.
   - _The executives lunch at the same club every Friday._
   - _We lunched on the terrace overlooking the sea._
3. To treat someone to lunch, usually by paying for it oneself.
   - Simple: To give someone lunch as a treat, often by paying for it.
   - _The publisher lunched the visiting authors at an expensive restaurant._
   - _Firms often lunch prospective clients to seal a partnership._

## Noun

6. A thin slice or thick hunk of something edible, such as bread or meat. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A piece or thick chunk of food such as bread or meat.

## 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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/lunch (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).