• (British) IPA: /ˈdɪnə/
• (America) enPR: dĭnʹər, IPA: /ˈdɪnəɹ/, [ˈdɪnɚ]

dinner

1. A midday meal (in a context in which the evening meal is called supper or tea).
   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗:

     At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.

   • 1919, Elisabeth P. Stork (translator), Heidi, Johanna Spyri:

     It was already late for school, so the boy took his time and only arrived in the village when Heidi came home for dinner. […] "Come to the table now and eat with us. Then you can go up with Heidi, and when you bring her back at night, you can get your supper here."

2. The main meal of the day, often eaten in the evening.
   • 2016, [https://web.archive.org/web/20170918070146/https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lets-learn-english-lesson-3-i-am-here/3126527.html VOA Learning English] (public domain)

     I want to cook dinner.

3. An evening meal.
4. A meal given to an animal.

   Give the dog its dinner.

5. A formal meal for many people eaten for a special occasion.
6. (uncountable) The food provided or consumed at any such meal.

• (an evening meal) evening meal, supper, tea
• (meal given to an animal) chow
• (midday meal) lunch, luncheon
• (formal meal for many people eaten at a special occasion) banquet, feast, luncheon

• (combinatorial form) deipno-
• (fear of) deipnophobia
• (verb) dine

• French: dîner (Central France), souper (Belgium)
• German: Hauptmahlzeit, Abendessen
• Italian: cena
• Portuguese: jantar, ceia
• Russian: у́жин
• Spanish: cena

• German: Futter
• Portuguese: ração
• Russian: еда́

• French: déjeuner, dîner (Belgium, Cajun, Swiss, Canadian, Louisiana and Romandy French)
• German: Mittagessen
• Italian: pranzo
• Portuguese: almoço
• Russian: обе́д
• Spanish: almuerzo

• Portuguese: prândio, banquete
• Russian: обе́д
• Spanish: banquete

dinner (dinners, present participle dinnering; past and past participle dinnered)

1. (intransitive) To eat a dinner.
   • 2014, Caroline Akervik, White Pine, White Bear Lake, MN: Melange Books, Chapter 6, p. 57,

     Once I was geared up, I joined him on the wide, flat seat of the sled which was loaded up with hot food for the jacks who were dinnering out since they worked a forty far from the camp.

2. (transitive) To provide (someone) with a dinner.
   • 1887, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, A Devout Lover, London: F.V. White & Co., Volume 1, Chapter 11, p. 181,

     She had taken her about to concerts and exhibitions—she had dinnered her at the Colonies, and suppered her at the New Club.

   • 2004, Colm Tóibín, The Master (novel), New York: Scribner, Chapter Two, p. 26,

     ‘The Irish were awful anyway,’ Lady Wolseley said, ‘and their not attending the season should be greeted with relief. The dreary matrons dragging their dreary daughters about the place and dinnering up every possible partner for them. The truth is that no one wants to marry their daughters, no one at all.’

• (eat a dinner) dine (formal)