# meal

Pronunciation: say "MEEL" US /mil/, UK /miːl/

## Noun

1. Food prepared and eaten on one occasion, usually at a regular time of day and more substantial than a snack; also, the occasion of eating it.
   - Simple: Food eaten at one time, such as breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or the time when you eat it.
   - _After the long hike, they sat down to a hot meal at the lodge._
   - _Many people plan their meals for the week every Sunday._
2. Grain or other seeds ground into a powder or small particles for food or animal feed, sometimes coarser than flour; also, any similar powdery or granular substance.
   - Simple: Grain crushed into powder for food or animal feed, or any powder or small grains that look like it.
   - _The recipe calls for two cups of coarse rye meal._
   - _Mills along the river once ground the region's barley into meal._

## Noun

3. A part, fragment, or portion of something. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A part or small piece of something larger.
4. A time or an occasion. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A set time or occasion when something happens.

## Verb

5. To defile or taint. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make something dirty, or to spoil something pure.
6. Of grain, to give a generous yield of meal. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To produce a lot of meal when ground.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A period during a police officer’s shift set aside for eating.
- (noun) A speck or spot.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4** — Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ("to measure") is the root behind Proto-Germanic *mēlą and Old English mǣl, which could mean "measure, time, occasion" or a "set time for eating." That became Middle English mel. German Mahl ("meal") and Mal ("time") are related, as are words for "measure" such as Ancient Greek métron and Latin mensus.
**Meanings 2, 6** — The root *melh₂- ("to grind, mill") in Proto-Indo-European led to Proto-Germanic *melwą and Old English melu ("meal, flour"), which became Middle English mele. German Mehl and Dutch meel are cognates, and Latin molō ("I grind") and Ancient Greek múlē ("mill") are related.
**Meanings 3, 5** — This is a variant of mole (compare Scots mail). The chain runs back from Middle English mole to Old English māl, mǣl, which meant a "spot, mark, blemish." That came from *mailą ("wrinkle, spot") in Proto-Germanic and ultimately from *mey- ("to soil"), a Proto-Indo-European root.

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