“meals” is a form of
meal
/ˈmiːl/ noun, verb
Forms meals mealing mealed
- noun (countable) Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. “Breakfast is the morning meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner, or supper, is the evening meal.”
- noun (countable) Food served or eaten as a repast.
- noun (uncountable, informal) A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.
- noun (countable, obsolete) A time or an occasion.
- noun The ground-up edible part of various grains, used as a basis of food or feed; either flour or a coarser blend than flour (usage varies).
- noun Any of various similarly granular materials prepared from other sources, such as bones or wood.
- noun Any of various other granular or powdery materials, either ground by humans or occurring in nature, named figuratively after a resemblance to grain meal.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To yield or be plentiful in meal.
- noun (UK dialectal) A speck or spot.
- noun A part; a fragment; a portion.
- verb (transitive) To defile or taint.
Synonyms
Etymology
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”).
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”).
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 (“to 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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A part; a fragment; a portion. [Obs.]
- noun The portion of food taken at a particular time for the satisfaction of appetite; the quantity usually taken at one time with the purpose of satisfying hunger; a repast; the acas, the traveler has not eaten a good meal for a week; there was silence during the meal.
- noun Grain (esp. maize, rye, or oats) that is coarsely ground and unbolted; also, a kind of flour made from beans, pease, etc.; sometimes, any flour, esp. if coarse.
- noun Any substance that is coarsely pulverized like meal, but not granulated. Meal beetle (Zoöl.), the adult of the meal worm. See Meal worm, below.
Etymology [OE. mele, AS. m part, portion, portion of time; akin to E. meal a repast. Cf. Piecemeal.]
Etymology [OE. mel; akin to E. meal a part, and to D. maal time, meal, G. mal time, mahl meal, Icel. mal measure, time, meal, Goth. m time, and to E. measure. See Measure.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “meal”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details