Does 'dinner' mean lunch, or supper?

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   L a d y f a c eposted 13 years ago

   Does 'dinner' mean lunch, or supper?
   
   I've always took it to mean supper, but I'm finding out that some people take it to mean lunch.

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2. 0

   Love learningposted 13 years ago

   I would have thought that it means supper.  Cause lunch is midday snack.

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3. 61

   TheJmanposted 13 years ago

   Where I'm from, dinner means supper! I'm pretty it has a universal meaning

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4. 64

   Granny's Houseposted 13 years ago

   Farmers and some other workers call lunch dinner because this is when they have their big meal. Dinner as we call it is supper to them. That is because farmers get done late and most times eat what ever left overs there was from dinner (lunch)

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5. 68

   bearnmomposted 13 years ago

   Dinner to me as I was growing up meant a midday meal.  We ate Dinner on Sundays around noon.  On weekdays we ate breakfast in the mornings, lunch around noon and supper as the evening meal.  We only ate Dinner on Sunday which made it a special meal usually on the dining room table.

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6. 61

   Lovesloveposted 13 years ago

   When I was a child we had dinner at 12 noon and tea at about 5 pm
   
   When i grew up I was told that dinner became lunch if you ate a meal in the evening..so...
   
   if you eat a snack at lunchtime and eat a cooked meal in the evening that is Dinner !!
   If you eat a cooked meal at lunchtime and have tea  then irs dinner at lunch time....Clear as mud .
   
   in a nutshell in our house its...
   
   BREAKFAST
   LUNCH
   DINNER

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7. 56

   rieomposted 13 years ago

   Where I live dinner means supper, the evening meal.

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8. 59

   njgirl1999posted 13 years ago

   supper........ lunch is to eat in the afternoon

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9. 53

   Angelsunposted 13 years ago

   In my opinion, "dinner" means big meal in formal places. It can be refered to Lunch and also also can be refered to supper.

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10. 76

    Ruchiraposted 13 years ago

    Dinner is usually defined as "The Main Meal" of the day which scientifically should be during the day so that we move around and are able to digest the food that we consume. So, Lunch should be like our Dinner and in the evening we should consume less.
    
    As a saying goes...Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

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    Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

    Where I live it's generally, "breakfast, lunch, and dinner" as far as the three meals in a day go.  "Supper" is more something people have in a large group (as in "spaghetti supper" at a church).  Supper is generally an informal meal.  People around here used to (I think) call a meal between - like - 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. as "supper", and meals later than that "dinner".  They used to also call a meal "supper" if it were after 4 p.m. but in the kitchen, as opposed to in the dining room.
    
    People where I live don't call lunch "dinner".  When my mother would be feeding any baby she'd tend to refer to meal (when talking to the baby) as "your dinner".  I guess she thought it simplified language for a baby.  If it came in a bowl and was on the high chair tray - she'd call it "dinner" for the baby.   

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12. 0

    wilbury4posted 13 years ago

    Think this depends on where exactly you come from.
    Where I come from, northwest England; I start the day with breakfast when I get up; I have my dinner between 12 noon and 1 pm; I have my tea between 5 and 6 pm and supper around 9.30pm.

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       kiefamyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It's not good for your metabolism to eat after 8:00 p.m.

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13. 61

    Jaymeyarochposted 13 years ago

    It is actually neither.  Dinner was what one had before evening tea, between lunch and supper.  Dinner was a meal that consisted of fats and carbohydrates with proteins that needed to be digested before bed time so that the people could maintain healthy lifestyles.  Proteins take several hours to digest.  Your body enters a rest state when you sleep that makes digesting a lot of food difficult.  Remember that portions back then for any meal would be smaller than what we feed our ten-year-olds today.
    
    Supper was a light meal with cooked vegetables and often a broth or soup (hence the name) and this would be to aid in the digestion of the previous dinner.
    
    Lunch in many places is merely a snack, and breakfast is a large meal containing everything Americans would normally have for dinner (meat, carb, veggies, fruit, occasionally ale or wine).  Lunch was designed to carry you over to dinner, which came at the end of the work day.
    
    The use of a dinner faded when technology advanced, from industry to crop growing techniques, and most societies developed a three meal, rather than a four meal, day.
    
    The best caricature of dinner is expressed by J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbits.

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14. 60

    karenfreemansmithposted 13 years ago

    In my dad's family it means lunch.  In my mom's family it means supper.  I've come to the conclusion that dinner is like brunch... the meal between lunch (noon) and supper (night). So I guess it's an afternoon snack for those that follow the advice to eat 5-6 small meals a day.

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15. 82

    rlleon42posted 13 years ago

    Dinner means.....dinner. Supper, is dinner, lunch is lunch, and dinner is dinner.   At least for my generation, we'd never use "supper". My parents use that word, my grandparents use that word, but its not too common to hear from the younger crowd.

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16. 61

    Xavier Izaguirreposted 13 years ago

    Just a quick add
    
    Spanish have luch as their big meal, hence the siesta, crazy I know ( I am one

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    Husky1970posted 13 years ago

    In my world, lunch is lunch.  Supper is a casual evening meal at home or at an ordinary restuarant.  It becomes upscaled to dinner when the meal is a little fancier at home with maybe a candle burning or something to differentiate it from supper or eating out at a somewhat more than ordinary restaurant.

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    RunescapeProposted 13 years ago

    I've only heard "dinner" to mean supper.

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19. 68

    Diane Insideposted 13 years ago

    In the south Dinner is lunch, in most places.  But actually in my house we use the word interchangably, sometimes we say lunch and sometimes we say dinner.  Supper is always the evening meal, and Breakfast the morning meal. But midday meal is either lunch or dinner, it is usually dinner at home or while eating out but lunch when refering to midday meal at work.

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20. 59

    AngusNzposted 13 years ago

    I always see dinner as meaning the main meal of the day, on a saturday at lunch time (midday), "what's for dinner". Or after school or work you come home to supper and again "what's for dinner" (to be cooked that is, not assuming somebody should do it for you but mom always did). And so dinner is a general term for main meal. you can have a light lunch or supper but a dinner is BIIIIGGG.

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    rameshmedaposted 13 years ago

    93
    Ruchira says
    
    Dinner is usually defined as "The Main Meal" of the day which scientifically should be during the day so that we move around and are able to digest the food that we consume. So, Lunch should be like our Dinner and in the evening we should consume less.
    
    As a saying goes...Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

    replyreport
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    Scribenetposted 13 years ago

    I am with the dinner is "supper" crowd. Being from Canada, that may be a regional thing. However, we NEVER invited anyone for supper...that was for family...more informal. Dinner was for guests...like,"I am inviting you over for dinner". Lunch was always lunch...even if eating out formally...it is always still lunch!
    
    It is interesting what variety of answers this question has!

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    esatchelposted 13 years ago

    I grew up in Chicago (breakfast, lunch, dinner) but hail from Appalachian Kentucky (breakfast, dinner, supper). Of course, with the Americanization of America, lunch/dinner and dinner/supper is not quite so geographically clear anymore. If you say "supper", I know you mean the evening meal, if you say "lunch", I know you mean the midday meal. If you say dinner and you are from south of the Ohio River, I ask "what time?" Ann :^}

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    John MacNabposted 13 years ago

    Where I grew up there was no such thing as lunch.  Dinner was when my Father came home from the pit so I suppose it would be supper in today's meaning.

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    Esmeowl12posted 13 years ago

    To me, dinner is supper, but I have heard people in the South refer to "dinner" as lunch.

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    TomC35posted 13 years ago

    Dinner is a formal name for lunch.  Supper is the evening meal, while dinner is the daytime meal.

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    Felynxposted 13 years ago

    To people born close to the earlier 20th century, dinner meant lunch, but to most born later, dinner means supper.

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    remanikiposted 13 years ago

    In my opinion  it is normally breakfast, lunch and either supper or dinner, supper being an earlier and lighter dinner.

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    julielee125posted 13 years ago

    Supper.  Lunch is middle of the day, dinner is generally considered the later meal of the day.  I have heard people refer to a snack as a supper however.

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    Jaynie2000posted 13 years ago

    At our house it's always meant supper. Lunch is lunch.

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    kiefamyposted 12 years ago

    This is all very confusing - everyone seems to use the terms differently.  I just wanted to tell my grandfather I was coming over for "dinner" (as we call the meal you eat around 6 or 7 p.m., and being Canadian, 93 years old and having dementia, he kept asking me if I was coming over for dinner or supper.  So, I told him I would be at  his house around 6:00, and he concluded that was supper.

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    peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

    dinner means the last meal of the day at 7pm. Supper will be 12am, usually ramen noodles soup !

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