Originally: †a fashionable social event at which each guest contributed a share of the food (obsolete). Now: an informal meal eaten out of doors…

(chiefly in Cornwall) a publicly provided outdoor tea party for children, esp. of a Sunday-school; also attributive.

Phrase. a kettle of fish. On the Tweed, etc. A kettle of fish cooked al fresco, at a boating excursion or picnic; hence, applied to the picnic…

= scran, n. 2.

(a) a fundraising social event at which boxed meals are sold or auctioned, customarily to be shared by the purchaser with the person who prepared…

(see quots.).

a lunch to be eaten outdoors; a packed lunch.

a tea party or picnic given for village schoolchildren.

a lunch or light meal packed in a box, typically for transporting and eating away from home; cf. bag lunch n.

one for which the provisions are brought in a basket.

Of a meal: pre-prepared and packaged for transporting and eating away from home. Frequently in packed lunch.

a packed lunch; a lunch in a paper bag.

a plain brown paper-bag, esp. one in which a lunch is packed and carried to a work-place, meeting, etc.: frequently attributive, esp. as brown-bag…