lunchn.1
/lʌn(t)ʃ/, U.S. /lən(t)ʃ/ Obsolete exc. dialect.
The sound made by the fall of a soft heavy body.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > non-resonance > [noun] > non-resonant impact sound > soft impact
lunchc1440
squelch1620
squash1654
dowf1818
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 135/1 Dunche, or lonche (H.P. lunche), sonitus, strepitus.
1890 Lincs. Notes & Queries July 68 She heärd a lunch, bud she thoht it was th' childer plaayin'.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
lunchn.2
/lʌn(t)ʃ/, U.S. /lən(t)ʃ/ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > incompleteness > part of whole > [noun] > a separate part > a piece or bit > large or thick piece
luncheon1580
lunch1591
chuck1674
chunk1691
junt1718
daud1721
junk1726
hunch1790
hunk1809
dunt1813
knoll1829
nugget1853
slug1867
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Lonja de tocino A lunch of bacon, frustum, lardi.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique vii. xxv. 850 He shall take breade and cut it into little lunches [Fr. loppins] into a pan with cheese.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 280 Our Master was well content..that we should roste a good lunch of porke.
1707 J. Stevens tr. F. de Quevedo Comical Wks. (1709) 236 I clapp'd a good Lunch of Bread into my Pocket.
1786 R. Burns Holy Fair xxiii, in Poems 52 An' cheese an' bread..Was dealt about in lunches.
2.
a. A synonym of luncheon n. 2. (Now the usual word except in specially formal use, though formerly objected to as vulgar.) Also: a light meal at any time of the day.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > meal > [noun] > light meal or snacks
nuncheonc1260
morsela1382
refection?a1439
mixtumc1490
bever1500
banquet1509
collation1525
snatch1570
beverage1577
a little something1577
anders-meat1598
four-hours1637
watering1637
refreshment1639
snap1642
luncheona1652
crib1652
prandicle1656
munchin1657
baita1661
unch1663
afternooning1678
whet1688
nacket1694
merenda1740
rinfresco1745
bagging?1746
snack1757
coffee1774
second breakfast1775
nummit1777
stay-stomach1800
damper1804
eleven o'clock1805
noonshine1808
by-bit1819
morning1819
four1823
four o'clock1825
lunch1829
stay-bit1833
picnic meal1839
elevens1849
Tommy1864
picnic tea1869
dinnerette1872
merienda1880
elevenses1887
light bite1887
soldier's supper1893
mug-up1902
tray1914
café complet1933
nosha1941
namkeen1942
snax1947
snackette1952
chaat1954
ploughman's lunch1957
munchie1959
playlunch1960
short-eat1962
lite bite1965
munchie1971
ploughman1975
aperitivo2002
the world > food and drink > food > meal > [noun] > midday meal or lunch
noonmeatOE
noona1225
midday meala1425
noon meal?c1460
Sunday dinner1602
nooning1649
luncheona1652
noon dinner1656
nummit1777
tiffin1800
sandwich lunch1828
lunch1829
twelve hours1844
free lunch1848
midday dinner1852
Sunday lunch1854
nooning-meal1865
Mittagessen1876
business lunch1880
tray lunch1936
pub lunch1954
working lunch1954
liquid lunch1970
three-martini lunch1972
1829 H. D. Best Personal & Lit. Mem. 307 The word lunch is adopted in that ‘glass of fashion’, Almacks, and luncheon is avoided as unsuitable to the polished society there exhibited.
1836 A. Combe Physiol. Digestion ii. iv. 283 We do not experience the same dislike to exertion after a light forenoon lunch.
1841 S. Warren Ten Thousand a-Year I. viii. 256 He happened to mention it at lunch.
1859 J. Cumming Ruth v. 87 Parched corn was her only lunch in the midst of a day of ardour and of sunshine.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate III. iv. 92 Lunch was on the table at half-past one.
1880 ‘Mrs. Forrester’ Roy & Viola I. 20 Come to lunch to-morrow at one.
1901 R. D. Evans Sailor's Log vi. 59 Every night during the mid watch a beautiful lunch was served to the officer of the deck.
1936 S.P.E. Tract (Soc. for Pure Eng.) No. XLV. 183 In several..instances a word has been liberated in America from the restrictions that limit its application in England; for example..lunch.
1950 E. A. McCourt Home is Stranger (1951) viii. 124 At midnight the womenfolk hurried out to the hall to prepare lunch.
1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 540 Lunch, the midday meal..may cover anything from the sandwich lunch taken by some office and factory workers to the fairly elaborate formal meal given when guests are entertained at a public function or private party.
1960 S. Plath Colossus 20 I open my lunch on a hill of black cypress.
1963 L. Diack Labrador Nurse i. vii. 37 After a ‘lunch’ (i.e. a snack), all hands..would set to work.
1965 J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Industry i. 36 Lunch, a light snack which was taken at the mid-morning or mid-afternoon break... Lunch was food taken at any time away from main meals, even in the evening.
1968 New Society 22 Aug. 265/2 Though the U still have lunch (not dinner) in the middle of the day and U-dogs still have their dinner then, U-children have changed; they no longer have mid-day dinner, in the nursery, but have lunch with their mothers.
b. out to lunch: insane; stupid, unaware; socially unacceptable. North American slang.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupidity, dullness of intellect > [adjective]
sloweOE
stuntc960
dullOE
hardOE
stuntlyc1000
sotc1050
dillc1175
dulta1225
simplea1325
heavy1340
astonedc1374
sheepishc1380
dull-witteda1387
lourd1390
steerishc1411
ass-likea1425
brainless?a1439
deafc1440
sluggishc1450
short-witted1477
obtuse1509
peakish1519
wearish1519
deaf, or dumb as a beetle1520
doileda1522
gross1526
headlessa1530
stulty1532
ass-headed1533
pot-headed1533
stupid?1541
sheep's head1542
doltish1543
dumpish1545
assish1548
blockish1548
slow-witted1548
blockheaded1549
surd1551
dull-headed1552
hammer-headed1552
skit-brained?1553
buzzardly1561
witless1562
log-headeda1566
assy1566
sottish1566
dastardly1567
stupidious1567
beetle-headed1570
calvish1570
bluntish1578
cod's-headed1578
grout-headed1578
bedaft1579
dull-pated1580
blate1581
buzzard-like1581
long-eared1582
dullard1583
woodena1586
duncical1588
leaden-headed1589
buzzard1592
dorbellical1592
dunstical1592
heavy-headeda1593
shallow-brained1592
blunt-witted1594
mossy1597
Bœotian1598
clay-brained1598
fat1598
fat-witted1598
knotty-pated1598
stupidous1598
wit-lost1599
barren1600
duncifiedc1600
lourdish1600
stockish1600
thick1600
booby1603
leaden-pated1603
partless1603
thin-headed1603
leaden-skulledc1604
blockhead1606
frost-brained1606
ram-headed1608
beef-witted1609
insulse1609
leaden-spirited1609
asininec1610
clumse1611
blockheadly1612
wattle-headed1613
flata1616
logger-headeda1616
puppy-headeda1616
shallow-patedc1616
thick-brained1619
half-headed1621
buzzard-blinda1625
beef-brained1628
toom-headed1629
thick-witted1634
woollen-witted1635
squirrel-headed1637
clod-pated1639
lean-souled1639
muddy-headed1642
leaden-witteda1645
as sad as any mallet1645
under-headed1646
fat-headed1647
half-witted1647
insipid1651
insulsate1652
soft-headed1653
thick-skulleda1657
muddish1658
non-intelligent1659
whey-brained1660
sap-headed1665
timber-headed1666
leather-headeda1668
out of (one's) tree1669
boobily1673
thoughtless1673
lourdly1674
logger1675
unintelligenta1676
Bœotic1678
chicken-brained1678
under-witted1683
loggerhead1684
dunderheaded1692
unintelligible1694
buffle-headed1697
crassicc1700
numbskulled1707
crassous1708
doddy-polled1708
haggis-headed1715
niddy-noddy1722
muzzy1723
pudding-headed1726
sumphish1728
pitcher-souleda1739
duncey1743
hebete1743
chuckheaded1756
dumb1756
duncely1757
imbecile1766
mutton-headed1768
chuckle-headed1770
jobbernowl1770
dowfarta1774
boobyish1778
wittol1780
staumrel1787
opaquec1789
stoopid1791
mud-headed1793
borné1795
muzzy-headed1798
nog-headed1800
thick-headed1801
gypit1804
duncish1805
lightweight1809
numbskull1814
tup-headed1816
chuckle-pate1820
unintellectuala1821
dense1822
ninnyish1822
dunch1825
fozy1825
potato-headed1826
beef-headed1828
donkeyish1831
blockheadish1833
pinheaded1837
squirrel-minded1837
pumpkin-headed1838
tomfoolish1838
dundering1840
chicken-headed1842
like a bump on a log1842
ninny-minded1849
numbheadeda1852
nincompoopish1852
suet-brained1852
dolly1853
mullet-headed1853
sodden1853
fiddle-headed1854
numb1854
bovine1855
logy1859
crass1861
unsmart1861
off his chump1864
wooden-headed1865
stupe1866
lean-minded1867
duffing1869
cretinous1871
doddering1871
thick-head1873
doddling1874
stupido1879
boneheaded1883
woolly-headed1883
leaden-natured1889
suet-headed1890
sam-sodden1891
dopey1896
turnip-headed1898
bonehead1903
wool-witted1905
peanut-headed1906
peanut-brained1907
dilly1909
torpid-minded1909
retardate1912
nitwitted1917
meat-headed1918
mug1922
cloth-headed1925
loopy1925
nitwit1928
lame-brained1929
dead from the neck up1930
simpy1932
nail-headed1936
square-headed1936
dingbats1937
pinhead1939
dim-witted1940
pea-brained1942
clueless1943
lobotomized1943
retarded1949
pointy-headed1950
clottish1952
like a stunned mullet1953
silly (or crazy) as a two-bob watch1954
out to lunch1955
pin-brained1958
dozy1959
eejity1964
out of one's tiny mind1965
doofus1967
twitty1967
twittish1969
twatty1975
twattish1976
blur1977
dof1979
goofus1981
dickheaded1991
dickish1991
numpty1992
cockish1996
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with
woodc725
woodsekc890
giddyc1000
out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000
witlessc1000
brainsickOE
amadc1225
lunaticc1290
madc1330
sickc1340
brain-wooda1375
out of one's minda1387
frenetica1398
fonda1400
formada1400
unwisea1400
brainc1400
unwholec1400
alienate?a1425
brainless1434
distract of one's wits1470
madfula1475
furious1475
distract1481
fro oneself1483
beside oneself1490
beside one's patience1490
dementa1500
red-wood?1507
extraught1509
misminded1509
peevish1523
bedlam-ripe1525
straughta1529
fanatic1533
bedlama1535
daft1540
unsounda1547
stark raving (also staring) mad1548
distraughted1572
insane1575
acrazeda1577
past oneself1576
frenzy1577
poll-mad1577
out of one's senses1580
maddeda1586
frenetical1588
distempered1593
distraught1597
crazed1599
diswitted1599
idle-headed1599
lymphatical1603
extract1608
madling1608
distracteda1616
informala1616
far gone1616
crazy1617
March mada1625
non compos mentis1628
brain-crazed1632
demented1632
crack-brained1634
arreptitiousa1641
dementate1640
dementated1650
brain-crackeda1652
insaniated1652
exsensed1654
bedlam-witteda1657
lymphatic1656
mad-like1679
dementative1685
non compos1699
beside one's gravity1716
hyte1720
lymphated1727
out of one's head1733
maddened1735
swivel-eyed1758
wrong1765
brainsickly1770
fatuous1773
derangedc1790
alienated1793
shake-brained1793
crack-headed1796
flighty1802
wowf1802
doitrified1808
phrenesiac1814
bedlamite1815
mad-braineda1822
fey1823
bedlamitish1824
skire1825
beside one's wits1827
as mad as a hatter1829
crazied1842
off one's head1842
bemadded1850
loco1852
off one's nut1858
off his chump1864
unsane1867
meshuga1868
non-sane1868
loony1872
bee-headed1879
off one's onion1881
off one's base1882
(to go) off one's dot1883
locoed1885
screwy1887
off one's rocker1890
balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891
meshuggener1892
nutty1892
buggy1893
bughouse1894
off one's pannikin1894
ratty1895
off one's trolley1896
batchy1898
twisted1900
batsc1901
batty1903
dippy1903
bugs1904
dingy1904
up the (also a) pole1904
nut1906
nuts1908
nutty as a fruitcake1911
bugged1920
potty1920
cuckoo1923
nutsy1923
puggled1923
blah1924
détraqué1925
doolally1925
off one's rocket1925
puggle1925
mental1927
phooey1927
crackers1928
squirrelly1928
over the edge1929
round the bend1929
lakes1934
ding-a-ling1935
wacky1935
screwball1936
dingbats1937
Asiatic1938
parlatic1941
troppo1941
up the creek1941
screwed-up1943
bonkers1945
psychological1952
out to lunch1955
starkers1956
off (one's) squiff1960
round the twist1960
yampy1963
out of (also off) one's bird1966
out of one's skull1967
whacked out1969
batshit1971
woo-woo1971
nutso1973
out of (one's) gourd1977
wacko1977
off one's meds1986
1955 Sci. Digest Aug. 33/1 ‘Out to lunch’ refers to someone who, in other years, just wasn't ‘there’—and he is told immediately to ‘Get with it!’
1959 She May 21/2 Out to lunch has nothing to do with social life but implies one is not in the groove.
1966 Toronto Daily Star 16 June 74/2 A girl who would be attracted to Bud's mean streak and bad temper must be a little out to lunch.
1974 Melody Maker 13 July 13/5 I think he's out to lunch. He's blown out—completely.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
lunch-basket n.
ΚΠ
1901 19th Cent. Oct. 630 I..snatched a hasty breakfast from my lunch basket.
lunch-bell n.
ΚΠ
1875 H. B. Stowe We & our Neighbors v. 67 The ringing of the lunch bell interrupted the conversation.
lunch-biscuit n.
ΚΠ
1892 G. R. Lowndes Camping Sketches 52 Trout, lunch biscuits, and cake, formed a reasonable lunch.
lunch-break n.
ΚΠ
1960 News Chron. 14 June 6/6 Half of today's secretaries are married women and rely on the lunch break to do..their shopping.
1971 C. Storr Thursday xii. 133 She timed herself to reach the [building] site just before the lunch break.
lunch-cake n.
ΚΠ
1886 M. L. Dods Handbk. Pract. Cookery (new ed.) 219 Lunch Cake,..Bake in a moderate oven for one hour and a quarter.
1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 27 Oct. 7/2 Our buns, scones and lunch cakes are the acme of perfection.
1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 540/2 Lunch cake, a fairly plain, substantial fruit cake.
lunch-can n.
ΚΠ
1897 R. M. Stuart In Simpkinsville 14 They'd give him biscuits out o' their lunch-cans.
lunch-counter n.
ΚΠ
1869 Demorest's Young Amer. Oct. 460 (caption) Eating at a small lunch counter or eating-saloon.
1887 C. B. George 40 Years on Rail v. 79 You can have one end of the station for a lunch-counter, if you want it.
1904 G. S. Fullerton Syst. Metaphysics xv. 242 To obtain a sandwich from the woman at the lunch-counter.
1906 ‘O. Henry’ Four Million 223 He would be dining..at whirlwind lunch counters.
1926 J. Black You can't Win vi. 74 I went back uptown and into a lunch counter. The waiter was idle and talkative.
1934 Archit. Rev. 76 159/1 (caption) Lunch counter with recessed stainless steel front.
1960 New Statesman 26 Mar. 435/2 Possibly President Eisenhower will be a shade or two happier when a coloured Georgian and a white Georgian, seated on adjacent stools, have pie and coffee at a Woolworth lunch-counter in Atlanta—and possibly he may not.
1970 Times 23 Mar. 13/3 A nostalgic echo of those days when it seemed that all we had to do to achieve integration was to sit down at enough lunch counters together.
lunch-date n.
ΚΠ
1933 Radio Times 14 Apr. 95 A tragic lunch date.
1968 Listener 25 July 103/3 A message came regretting he could not keep our lunch date, because he must be sure to cast his vote.
lunch-hour n.
ΚΠ
1908 R. Kipling Lett. of Trav. (1920) 129 Canadian Clubs..assemble their members during the mid-day lunch-hour.
1909 H. G. Wells Ann Veronica xiv. 302 She waited in the laboratory at the lunch-hour.
1929 Radio Times 8 Nov. 426/1 1.15–2.0. A lunch hour concert.
1959 J. O'Donovan Visited xviii. 116 Edith sat by the phone all the lunch-hour.
lunch-house n.
ΚΠ
1846 Knickerbocker 28 558 The following parody was found inscribed on the newspaper-board of a ‘lunch-house’ in Saint Louis, Missouri.
lunch-money n.
ΚΠ
1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant viii. 108 One of those fellows..goes around and makes the boys give up their lunch money to buy flowers.
1955 M. Gilbert Sky High x. 144 Sixpence a week and their lunch money. That's all they get.
lunch-pail n.
ΚΠ
1891 M. E. Wilkins New Eng. Nun 44 Matilda came in her voluminous alpaca, with her tin lunch-pail on her arm.
1901 S. Merwin & H. K. Webster Calumet ‘K’ xv. 289 They slung their lunch pails on their arms and ate when and where they could.
1926 E. Hemingway Torrents of Spring x. 71 He set down his lunch-pail.
1964 M. Gallant in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 77 There was an unbridgeable gap..between the girl whose father went off to work with a lunch pail and the daughter of a man who ate..in the company cafeteria.
lunch-party n.
ΚΠ
1884 F. M. Crawford Amer. Politician I. iii. 43 At a lunch party..they sat and talked about pictures.
1936 H. Nicolson Let. 19 Feb. (1966) 244 I gave a lunch-party.
1961 Bible (New Eng.) Luke xiv. 12 When you give a lunch or dinner party.
lunch-room n.
ΚΠ
1830 N.Y. Mercantile Advertiser 16 Aug. 4/6 His Breakfast, Lunch and Dining rooms are capacious and comfortable.
1919 Detective Story Mag. 25 Nov. 129 He breakfasted at a hole-in-the-wall lunch room before starting out on his quest.
1958 New Statesman 1 Feb. 143/1 By the end of the novel, Flem..having by trickery acquired a half-interest in a Jefferson lunch-room has taken himself off to the county seat.
lunch-stand n.
ΚΠ
1887 C. B. George 40 Years on Rail v. 79 Superintendent Johnson..noticed this lunch-stand, with its modest, yet appetizing display.
lunch-table n.
ΚΠ
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 277 The well-appointed lunch-table.
lunch-tin n.
ΚΠ
1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Aug. 191/1 Lunch tins which can be painted attractive colours are easily washed, inexpensive, and light and convenient to carry.
lunch-wagon n.
ΚΠ
1894 Life 4 Oct. 215/1 ‘That, my dear,’ responded Adalbert, ‘is a lunch wagon.’
1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 69 Inside, out of the rain, the lunch wagon was hot and sticky.
C2.
lunch-dinner n. a meal that might be called either lunch or dinner, a mid-day dinner.
ΚΠ
1878 Sir P. Wallis in J. G. Brighton Adm. of Fleet (1892) 201 I hope the good squire will take a lunch-dinner with me.
Draft additions September 2013
lunch bag
ΚΠ
1855 Leicester Chron. 12 May Benjamin Clayton.., and Catharine Crossley, were charged with having stolen a cheese-strainer, towel, and lunch-bag.
1940 Life 3 June 113/2 (caption) Parisian picnickers pedal into country on a tandem bicycle. A lunch bag over the rear wheel contains a bottle of good wine.
2003 T. Morrison Love iii. 56 He fed her Yodels and Sno Balls from his lunch bag, since Junior's lunch might be a single apple or a mayonnaise sandwich.
Draft additions September 2017
lunch home n. Indian English (chiefly in southern India and Maharashtra) a small restaurant or other eatery.
ΚΠ
1939 Times of India 4 May 3/1 Wanted Malabar cook, well experienced in non-vegetarian preparations for ‘Modern Lunch Home’.
1944 Cochin Law Rep. 34 80 The 1st defendant..started an independent Lunch Home in Negapatam.
2015 Afternoon Voice (Mumbai) (Nexis) 27 Dec. The extortion plan was reportedly hatched in a small lunch home owned by the father of the main accused.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
lunchv.
/lʌn(t)ʃ/, U.S. /lən(t)ʃ/ 1. intransitive. To take lunch.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eating meals > eat meal [verb (intransitive)] > eat lunch
tiff1803
lunch1823
tiffin1866
luncheon1885
pub-lunch1971
1823 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. 2nd Ser. I. 402 She is now old enough, she said, to have lived to hear the vulgarisms of her youth adopted in drawing-room circles. To lunch, now so familiar from the fairest lips, in her youth was only known in the servants hall.
1884 G. Allen Philistia II. 101 Miss Merivale lunched with the family.
1887 J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel (1892) 190 Here can we lunch to the music of trees.
1897 H. Tennyson Alfred Lord Tennyson II. 222 On one occasion Ruskin lunched with us.
2. transitive. To provide lunch for. colloquial.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > providing or receiving food > feed or nourish [verb (transitive)] > entertain with food > entertain with specific meal
dinec1475
sup1609
supper1622
breakfast1793
dinner1822
bedinner1837
tea1844
tiffin1866
lunch1892
1892 Temple Bar Dec. 578 [She] does her duty..warmly by her country friends—lunching, tea-ing, and dining them.
1893 Westm. Gaz. 15 June 2/1 Permission was given to lunch the pilgrims on board the Victory.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1c1440
n.21591
v.1823