Definitions

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

  • noun A light evening meal when dinner is taken at midday.
  • noun A light meal eaten before going to bed.
  • noun A dance or social affair where supper is served.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The evening meal; the last repast of the day; specifically, a meal taken after dinner, whether dinner is served comparatively early or in the evening; in the Bible, the principal meal of the day—a late dinner (the later Roman cena, Greek δεῖπνον).
  • To take supper; sup.
  • To give supper to.

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

  • intransitive verb rare To take supper; to sup.
  • noun A meal taken at the close of the day; the evening meal.
  • transitive verb rare To supply with supper.

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

  • noun Food consumed before going to bed.
  • noun Any meal eaten in the evening; dinner eaten in the evening, rather than at noon.
  • noun A drinker, especially one who drinks slowly (i.e., one who sups).
  • verb To consume a snack before retiring.
  • verb To eat dinner (see above).

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

  • noun a social gathering where a light evening meal is served
  • noun a light evening meal; served in early evening if dinner is at midday or served late in the evening at bedtime

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French souper, to sup, supper; see sup.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French soper. Compare French souper.

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Examples

Comments

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  • One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.

    December 24, 2008

  • The kind of annoying person who says 'sup?' too much.

    January 15, 2016