diet
/ˈdaɪət/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms diets dieting dieted the Diet diate
- noun The food and beverage a person or animal consumes. “The diet of the giant panda consists mainly of bamboo.”
- noun (countable) A controlled regimen of food and drink choices, as to gain or lose weight or otherwise influence health. “He's been on a diet since he found out that he has coronary atherosclerosis.”
- noun (by extension) Any habitual intake or consumption. “He's been reading a steady diet of nonfiction for the last several years.”
- adjective (of a food or beverage) Containing less fat, salt, sugar, or calories than normal, or claimed to have such.
- adjective (informal, figurative) Having certain traits subtracted. “You folks reduce it to the bible only as being authoritative, impoverishing the faith. "Christianity Lite", diet Christianity for those who can't handle the Whole Meal.”
- verb (intransitive) To modify one's food and beverage intake so as to decrease or increase body weight or influence health. “I've been dieting for six months, and I've lost some weight.”
- verb (transitive, dated) To regulate the food of (someone); to put on a diet.
- verb (obsolete) To eat; to take one's meals.
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To cause to take food; to feed.
- noun (usually capitalized as a proper noun) A council or assembly of leaders; a formal deliberative assembly. “the National Diet of Japan”
- noun (Scotland) A session of exams.
- noun (Scots law) A criminal proceeding in court.
- noun (Scotland) A clerical or ecclesiastical function in Scotland. “a diet of worship”
- noun (rare) Dated spelling of diet.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English diet, dyet, diete, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin dieta (“regimen, regulation; assembly”), from Latin diaeta, from Ancient Greek δίαιτα (díaita).
From Middle English dieten, dyeten, diȝeten, from Old French dïeter and Medieval Latin diētāre.
From Middle English diet, dyet, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin diēta, diaeta (“a public assembly; set day of trial; a day's journey”), from Ancient Greek δῐ́αιτα (dĭ́aita, “way of living, living space; decision, judgement”), influenced by Latin diēs (“day”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Course of living or nourishment; what is eaten and drunk habitually; food; victuals; fare. "No inconvenient diet." Milton.
- noun A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed.
- verb To cause to take food; to feed. [R.] Shak.
- verb To cause to eat and drink sparingly, or by prescribed rules; to regulate medicinally the food of. She diets him with fasting every day. Spenser.
Etymology [F. diète, LL. dieta, diaeta, an assembly, a day's journey; the same word as diet course of living, but with the sense changed by L. dies day: cf. G. tag dayReichstag.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “diet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details