Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The food served and eaten in one sitting.
  • noun A customary time or occasion of eating food.
  • noun The edible whole or coarsely ground grains of a cereal grass.
  • noun A granular substance produced by grinding.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To grind into meal or the state of meal; pulverize: as, mealed powder.—2. To sprinkle with meal, or mix meal with.
  • To yield or produce meal; be productive in meal: applied to grain: as, the barley does not meal well this year.
  • To apportion food to; provide with meals or food; feed; fodder.
  • noun The edible part of any kind of grain or pulse ground to a powder or flour; flour: as, oatmeal, bean-meal.
  • noun Specifically— In the United States, ground maize: more fully called Indian meal and corn-meal.
  • noun In Scotland and Ireland, oatmeal.
  • noun Any substance resembling the meal of grain or pulse; especially, any coarsely ground substance.
  • noun A sand-heap.
  • noun A speck or spot.
  • noun The supply of food taken at one time for the relief of hunger; a provision of food (formerly of drink also) for one or more persons or animals for a single occasion, as at a customary time of eating; the substance of a repast; a breakfast, dinner, or supper: with reference to domestic animals, more commonly called a feed.
  • noun The taking or ingestion of a supply of food; an eating; a refection or repast.
  • noun The milk which a cow yields at one milking. Also called mcltith.
  • Apparently, to defile or taint.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A part; a fragment; a portion.
  • transitive verb To sprinkle with, or as with, meal.
  • transitive verb To pulverize.
  • 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 act or time of eating a 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.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the adult of the meal worm. See Meal worm, below.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a lepidopterous insect (Asopia farinalis), the larvæ of which feed upon meal, flour, etc.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the larva of a beetle (Tenebrio molitor) which infests granaries, bakehouses, etc., and is very injurious to flour and meal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time (e.g. breakfast = morning meal, lunch = noon meal, etc).
  • noun A speck or spot.
  • verb transitive To defile or taint.
  • noun The coarse-ground edible part of various grains often used to feed animals; flour.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the food served and eaten at one time
  • noun any of the occasions for eating food that occur by custom or habit at more or less fixed times
  • noun coarsely ground foodstuff; especially seeds of various cereal grasses or pulse

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mele, from Old English mǣl; see mē- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mele, from Old English melu; see melə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English mǣl ("measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal"), from Proto-Germanic *mēlan, from Proto-Indo-European *mē-, *me- (“to measure”). Cognate with Dutch maal ("meal, time, occurrence"), German Mal ("time"), Mahl ("meal"), Swedish mål ("meal"); and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, "measure"), Latin mensus, Russian мера (mera, "measure"), Lithuanian mẽtas. Related to Old English mǣþ ("measure, degree, proportion").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English mele, from Old English melu ("meal, flour"), from Proto-Germanic *melwan (“meal, flour”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *mol(w)ə- (“to grind, mill”). Cognate with West Frisian moal, Dutch meel, German Mehl, Albanian miell, Old Church Slavonic melvo ("grain to be ground"), 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 (mýlē, "mill"). More at mill.

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Examples

  • Three main types of maize meal are marketed in developing countries: whole meal; partly de-germed meal (i.e. meal from which part of the bran and germ has been removed) which is designated under various names (e.g. partly sifted meal, bolted meal, roller meal (Zambia)); and fully de-germed meal from which most of the bran and germ have been removed and which is also designated as “super-sifted meal”.

    Chapter 4 1984

  • With such a cultural diversity, the meal is a mouthwatering blend of Asian, Italian, Indian and American treats that push the stresses of the hospital to the side and tightens the bonds between colleagues used to unrelenting stress.

    Kari Henley: Family Meals: The Forgotten Ritual Kari Henley 2010

  • While this meal is an extreme example of culinary excess, its description is a good preparation for accounts of the food traditions that developed during the Viceregal period and on into the nineteenth century in Mexico.

    The Mexican kitchen: a taste for all seasons 2009

  • With such a cultural diversity, the meal is a mouthwatering blend of Asian, Italian, Indian and American treats that push the stresses of the hospital to the side and tightens the bonds between colleagues used to unrelenting stress.

    Kari Henley: Family Meals: The Forgotten Ritual Kari Henley 2010

  • While this meal is an extreme example of culinary excess, its description is a good preparation for accounts of the food traditions that developed during the Viceregal period and on into the nineteenth century in Mexico.

    The Mexican kitchen: a taste for all seasons 2009

  • With such a cultural diversity, the meal is a mouthwatering blend of Asian, Italian, Indian and American treats that push the stresses of the hospital to the side and tightens the bonds between colleagues used to unrelenting stress.

    Kari Henley: Family Meals: The Forgotten Ritual Kari Henley 2010

  • With such a cultural diversity, the meal is a mouthwatering blend of Asian, Italian, Indian and American treats that push the stresses of the hospital to the side and tightens the bonds between colleagues used to unrelenting stress.

    Kari Henley: Family Meals: The Forgotten Ritual Kari Henley 2010

  • With such a cultural diversity, the meal is a mouthwatering blend of Asian, Italian, Indian and American treats that push the stresses of the hospital to the side and tightens the bonds between colleagues used to unrelenting stress.

    Kari Henley: Family Meals: The Forgotten Ritual Kari Henley 2010

  • While this meal is an extreme example of culinary excess, its description is a good preparation for accounts of the food traditions that developed during the Viceregal period and on into the nineteenth century in Mexico.

    The Mexican kitchen: a taste for all seasons 2009

  • But at the same time, I can't help but relate its title to Burroughs 'THE NAKED LUNCH, and parse it as an image of confrontation with reality, an image of that moment of recognition that the "simulacra" of a meal is actually the "objective reality" of a dead animal. posted by Hal Duncan | 5: 02 AM

    Archive 2008-08-01 Hal Duncan 2008

  • Vegans can be as strict or lax as they want to be in their food choices: the International Vegetarian Union’s websiteincludes vegan-friendly reminders about baking pans greased with animal fat, grain cereals that include animal-based glycerin, and sugar refined with bone charcoal. Then there’s raw veganism, which is an offshoot of veganism in which none of the food can be cooked. Take that a step further and you get “mono meals,” the idea that the stomach should only digest one type of food at a time.

    A Brief History of Veganism Claire Suddath 2008

  • When I started meal prepping, I spent upwards of three hours (sometimes more!), and quickly learned that it simply was not sustainable. Meal prep burnout is real, so if you’re just getting started go ahead and take it slow.

    The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Meal Prep 2008

  • A lot of meal preppers have designated times for getting takeout, they cook fresh food on days off, or they keep premade ready meals such as frozen pizza on hand.

    Meal Prep: A Guide! RinTheLost 2025

  • I’ve generally only seen people meal prep for themselves or maybe one other person, as opposed to a whole family.

    Meal Prep 101: A Beginners Guide to Meal Prepping - Budget Bytes Beth Moncel 2025

  • Who really wants to be cooking first thing in the morning when you gotta make it to work/class on time? Meal prepping breakfast can also be an opportunity to make breakfasts to eat on the go, or once you're at work.

    Meal Prep: A Guide! RinTheLost 2025

  • Meal prepping is simply the act of preparing a meal or recipe, then portioning it out to create grab-and-go meals for later. If you’ve ever packed up your leftovers from dinner to take with you for lunch the next day, then you’ve already mini-meal prepped!

    Meal Prep 101: A Beginners Guide to Meal Prepping - Budget Bytes Beth Moncel 2025

  • Meal prep is any kind of cooking action that reduces or eliminates cooking that needs to be done later. The prototypical meal prep is essentially batch-cooking 4-5 lunches on a Sunday to be eaten throughout the work or school week, but it can go all the way from washing and pre-chopping vegetables, on up to cooking and freezing an entire month's worth of meals or more for the whole family.

    Meal Prep: A Guide! RinTheLost 2025

  • When I started meal prepping, I spent upwards of three hours (sometimes more!), and quickly learned that it simply was not sustainable. Meal prep burnout is real, so if you’re just getting started go ahead and take it slow.

    The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Meal Prep 2025

  • I’m an avid planner of meals, and often eat my leftovers for lunch, but I definitely wouldn’t class myself as a meal prepper – someone who makes every meal for days, or even weeks – all in one go.

    ‘I meal prepped all of my meals for a week, here’s what I learnt…’ 2024

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