meal

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See also: -meal

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /miːl/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): [miːʟ̩]
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːl

Etymology 1

From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”).

Cognate with West Frisian miel, Dutch maal (“meal, time, occurrence”), German Mal (“time”), Mahl (“meal”), Norwegian Bokmål mål (“meal”), Swedish mål (“meal”); and (from Proto-Indo-European) with Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”), Latin mensus, Russian ме́ра (méra, “measure”), Lithuanian mẽtas. Related to Old English mǣþ (“measure, degree, proportion”).

Noun

meal (countable and uncountable, plural meals)

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  2. (countable) Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity (as opposed to a snack).
    Breakfast is the morning meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner, or supper, is the evening meal.
    • c1450, Secreta Secretorumː
      He that will cast meal upon meal is not able to have (a) long life.
    • c1500, The King and the Hermitː
      I have been there and taken deal / And have had many (a) merry meal.
    • 1535?, Dyfference Astronː
      But above all things beware that thou eat not till thou feel thy stomach empty and that it hath made good digestion of the first meal.
    • 1569, Fenton, Wondersː
      Besides he was so fantastical and unruly in his appetites, that he used no common meats at his meals, but was fed with the combs of cocks, the tongues of peahens.
    • 1606, Bodleyː
      Sir, I was thrice at Lamhith, to have dined with the Archeb since your departure, and still he was to dine, at the Court or with some Bishop. But I must and will find him as soon as I may: and rather at a meal, then otherwise, because I would have means, to participate at large, about our Collation.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly.
    • 1640, Richard Brathwait, Ar't asleep Husband? A BOULSTER LECTURE, Stored with all variety of witty Jests, merry Tales, and other pleasant passages; extracted from the choycest Flowers of Phi∣losophy, Poesy, ancient and moderne Historyː
      Give me but so many meals, and thou shalt find me one of the strongest Turkish males that ever English gennet bore.
    • 1796, Robert Bage, Hermsprong: or, Man As He Is Notː
      This letter was written whilst my hostess of the George was preparing the last meal I ever was to eat.
    • 1835, Edgar Allan Poe, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaallː
      Puss, who seemed in a great measure recovered from her illness, now made a hearty meal of the dead bird, and then went to sleep with much apparent satisfaction.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
      Indeed, the worthy gentleman, stimulated perhaps by the immediate prospect of being in active service, was in great spirits and good humor; in proof whereof, it may be here remarked, that he humorously drank all the beer at a draught; and did not utter, on a rough calculation, more than fourscore oaths during the whole progress of the meal.
    • 1982, Steven King, The Dark Tower: The Gunslingerː
      After the meal, he rinsed the cans from which they had eaten (marveling again at his own water extravagance), and when he turned around, Jake was asleep again.
    • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
      Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
    • 2016, Melissa Clark, Consider This Permission to Eat Burrata for Dinner in The New York Timesː
      In this recipe, I go even further, adding a robust salad to turn a lone cheese into a satisfying summer meal.
  3. (countable) Food served or eaten as a repast.
    • a1450, The Macro Playsː
      If thou wilt fare well at meat and meal, come and follow me.
    • 1855, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grassː
      This is the meal pleasantly set ... . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger. It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous.
    • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:
      Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
  4. (uncountable, informal) A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.
    • 1994, Brooklyn Barrister, volume 46, page 13:
      They [tape recorders] can be turned off while officers are on meal or in the car to protect their private conversations […]
    • 2019, R. J. Noonan, In the Line of Fire:
      “I was on meal when I heard the call on the radio and recognized the address. What the hell?”
  5. (obsolete) A time or an occasion.
    • The Lamentation of the Virgin Mary (MS. Cantab., Ff. ii., 38, fol. 47.), in: 1847, Thomas Wright (editor), The Chester Plays: A Collection of Mysteries founded upon scriptural Subjects, and formerly represented by the Trades of Chester at Whitsuntide, vol. II, p. 208f.:
      Ye wolde wepe at every mele;
      But for my sone wepe ye never a dele.
      You would weep at every meal, but for my son you never weep a deal.
    • a1400?-a1470?, in: 1999/2006, The Governance of England: Otherwise called The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy. By Sir John Fortescue. A Revised Text edited with Introduction, Notes, and Appendices by Charles Plummer, p. 132:
      […] by occasion whereoff thai woll than at every mele groche with the kinge […]
      […] by occasion whereof they will, then at every meal, grouch with the king […]
    • a1450, Henry Lovelich, The History of the Holy Grailː
      Which was to them a sorry meal.
    • a1450, Henry Lovelich, Merlinː
      Also soon as the dragons together feal, betwixt them shall begin a sorry meal.
    • a1450, The York Playsː
      What mean ye.. to make mourning at ilk a meal?
    • 1481, William Caxton, Reynard the Foxː
      I shall do late you have so much that ten of you should not eat it at one meal.
    • a1500, Alexander-Cassamus Fragmentː
      Of all the day throughout, keep I no better meal than on her to think.
    • c1500, In A Chyrchː
      Thou couth well weep at every meal.
Usage notes
  • In the fourth sense, meal is a fossil word and is usually found in the archaic/obsolete phrase "at every (ilk a) meal" meaning "on every occasion", compare also "at ilk a tide". It fell out of common usage in the late 15th century. Also, "at one meal" sometimes meant at a time, at once, at one time or in one go; see also German auf einmal (literally “upon one meal”). "To keep (the) meal" probably used to mean "to use/spend one's time". A "sorry meal" used to mean a "grim occasion" such as a fight, setback, mishap or some sort of other misfortune.
  • Meal, in the sense of "time" or "occasion", also survives in other set phrases, such as piecemeal (“one piece at a time”), footmeal (“one foot at a time”), heapmeal (“in large numbers”) etc.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
References

The Middle English Dictionary

Etymology 2

From Middle English mele, from Old English melu (“meal, flour”), from Proto-West Germanic *melu, from Proto-Germanic *melwą (“meal, flour”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, mill”).

Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian moal, Dutch meel, German Mehl, Albanian miell, Proto-Slavic *melvo (“grain to be ground”) (Bulgarian мливо (mlivo)), Dutch malen (“to grind”), German mahlen (“to grind”), Old Irish melim (“I grind”), Latin molō (“I grind”), Tocharian A/B malywët (“you press”)/melye (“they tread on”), Lithuanian málti, Old Church Slavonic млѣти (mlěti), Ancient Greek μύλη (múlē, “mill”). More at mill.

Noun

meal (countable and uncountable, plural meals)

  2. The coarse-ground edible part of various grains often used to feed animals; flour or a coarser blend than flour.
    • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
      Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
    Coordinate term: flour
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

meal (third-person singular simple present meals, present participle mealing, simple past and past participle mealed)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To yield or be plentiful in meal.
    • 1876, Notes and Queries, page 73:
      Of course the yield of grain was small, but much greater than could have been expected; and, the ears being well filled, it mealed well. The pastures were burnt up, so that there was nothing left for the cattle to eat.

Etymology 3

Variation of mole (compare Scots mail), from Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl, mǣl (“spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“wrinkle, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to soil”). More at mole.

Noun

meal (plural meals)

  1. (UK dialectal) A speck or spot.
  2. A part; a fragment; a portion.

Verb

meal (third-person singular simple present meals, present participle mealing, simple past and past participle mealed)

  1. (transitive) To defile or taint.

Anagrams

Aromanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Albanian mal[1], cognate to Aromanian mal and Romanian mal with the same origin.

Noun

meal n (plural mealuri)

  1. steep, scarped shore region
  2. (figurative) boondocks

References

  1. ^ Namenforschung / Name Studies / Les noms propres. 1. Halbband. 104. Illyrian-Albanian Toponyms, S. 718.

Irish

Verb

meal (present analytic mealann, future analytic mealfaidh, verbal noun mealadh, past participle mealta)

  1. Alternative form of meil (“to grind”)

Conjugation

conjugation of meal (first conjugation – A)
singular plural relative autonomous
first second third first second third
indicative present mealaim mealann tú;
mealair† 		mealann sé, sí mealaimid mealann sibh mealann siad;
mealaid† 		a mhealann; a mhealas /
a mealann* 		mealtar
past mheal mé; mhealas mheal tú; mhealais mheal sé, sí mhealamar; mheal muid mheal sibh; mhealabhair mheal siad; mhealadar a mheal /
ar mheal* 		mealadh
past habitual mhealainn / mealainn‡‡ mhealtá / mealtᇇ mhealadh sé, sí / mealadh sé, s퇇 mhealaimis; mhealadh muid / mealaimis‡‡; mealadh muid‡‡ mhealadh sibh / mealadh sibh‡‡ mhealaidís; mhealadh siad / mealaidís‡‡; mealadh siad‡‡ a mhealadh /
a mealadh* 		mhealtaí / mealta퇇
future mealfaidh mé;
mealfad 		mealfaidh tú;
mealfair† 		mealfaidh sé, sí mealfaimid;
mealfaidh muid 		mealfaidh sibh mealfaidh siad;
mealfaid† 		a mhealfaidh; a mhealfas /
a mealfaidh* 		mealfar
conditional mhealfainn / mealfainn‡‡ mhealfá / mealfᇇ mhealfadh sé, sí / mealfadh sé, s퇇 mhealfaimis; mhealfadh muid / mealfaimis‡‡; mealfadh muid‡‡ mhealfadh sibh / mealfadh sibh‡‡ mhealfaidís; mhealfadh siad / mealfaidís‡‡; mealfadh siad‡‡ a mhealfadh /
a mealfadh* 		mhealfaí / mealfa퇇
subjunctive present go meala mé;
go mealad† 		go meala tú;
go mealair† 		go meala sé, sí go mealaimid;
go meala muid 		go meala sibh go meala siad;
go mealaid† 		— go mealtar
past dá mealainn dá mealtá dá mealadh sé, sí dá mealaimis;
dá mealadh muid 		dá mealadh sibh dá mealaidís;
dá mealadh siad 		— dá mealtaí
imperative mealaim meal mealadh sé, sí mealaimis mealaigí;
mealaidh† 		mealaidís — mealtar
verbal noun mealadh
past participle mealta

* indirect relative
† archaic or dialect form
‡‡ dependent form used with particles that trigger eclipsis

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
meal mheal not applicable
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Northern Kurdish

Noun

meal ?

  1. meaning

Romansch

Noun

meal m

  1. (Sutsilvan) Alternative form of mel (“honey”)

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Middle Irish melaid (“to consume”), from Old Irish melaid (“to grind”), from Proto-Celtic *meleti (“to grind”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂-.

Pronunciation

Verb

meal (past mheal, future mealaidh, verbal noun mealadh or mealtainn, past participle mealte)

  1. enjoy

Synonyms

Derived terms

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