meal¹ /mēl/

1. The food taken at one time
2. The act or occasion of taking food, such as a breakfast, dinner or supper

mealˈer noun

A person who takes meals at a boarding house, lodging elsewhere

meals on wheels noun

A welfare service taking cooked, usu hot, meals to old people in need of such help

meal ticket noun

1. A ticket that can be exchanged for a meal (esp at reduced price)
2. A person or thing that one depends on for one's expenses or income (informal)
3. Someone who can be depended upon

mealˈ-tide (Scot meltith /melˈtith/ a meal) noun (archaic)

Mealtime

mealˈtime noun

The time at which a meal is regularly taken

make a meal of

1. To consume as a meal
2. To enjoy to the full
3. To treat or perform in an unnecessarily laborious or meticulous way

meal² /mēl/

1. Grain (now usu not wheat) or pulses ground to powder
2. In Scotland and Ireland, specif oatmeal
3. Maize flour (US)
4. Other material in powder form
5. A powdery surface-covering (chiefly botany)

1. To cover with meal
2. To add oatmeal to, esp to thicken (Scot)
3. To grind into meal

To yield or be plentiful in meal

mealˈiness noun

mealˈy or (Scot) mealˈie adjective

1. Like meal in texture, powdery, floury
2. Containing oatmeal (Scot)
3. Covered with, or as if with, meal
4. Having a powdery surface
5. Speckled, flecked
6. Whitish, pale

mealˈ-ark noun (Scot)

A large chest for holding oatmeal

mealie pudding noun (Scot)

A white pudding

mealˈ-man or mealˈ-monger noun (obsolete)

A dealer in meal

Meal Monday noun

The second Monday in February, a St Andrews (and formerly, Edinburgh) University holiday, orig to allow the students to go home and replenish their stock of meal

meal moth noun

A small moth (Pyralis farinalis) whose larvae are a serious pest of stored grain

mealˈ-poke noun (Scot)

A bag for oatmeal, formerly esp one carried by a beggar

mealˈ-tree noun

The wayfaring tree, from its mealy leaves and shoots

mealˈworm noun

The larva of a beetle (genus Tenebrio) frequently found in granaries and flour-stores

mealy bug noun

A hothouse pest, a coccus insect with a white powdery appearance

mealˈy-mouthed /-mowdhd/ adjective

1. Smooth-tongued
2. Over-squeamish, esp in choice of words

mealy-mouthˈedness noun

meal³ /mēl/ (Shakespeare)

(in pap meal'd) to stain or spot

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