The evening meal is usually called 'tea', 'dinner' or 'supper'. What is a traditional British Dinner? A typical British meal for dinner is "meat and two veg".
The terminology around eating in the UK is still confusing. For some "lunch" is "dinner" and vice versa. From the Roman times to the Middle Ages everyone ate in the middle of the day, but it was called dinner and was the main meal of the day. Lunch as we know it didn't exist - not even the word.
Dinner, tea or supper - which is correct? The answer is – they all are. Dinner, tea and supper have all come to mean an evening meal for different Brits in different ways and most of us have an understanding that this is what these names can mean.
Supper was originally a secondary lighter evening meal. The main meal of the day, called dinner, used to be served closer to what is known as lunchtime, around the middle of the day, but crept later over the centuries, mostly over the course of the 19th century.
repast. He proclaimed it a splendid repast. blowout (slang) collation. nosh-up (informal)
“Grub” is a slang word for food. “I'm hungry. Let's get some grub!” Two other slang words for food are nosh and chow.
Confused? Well most people see a dinner as a more complete meal. A common lunch in England is a sandwich, but dinner might include soup, meat with vegetables, and then a dessert like apple pie and ice cream. So, dinner is really the main meal and people might have it in the middle of the day or in the evening.
Tea Time, also known as "Afternoon Tea" or "Five o'clock Tea", is a tradition that comes straight from England and consists of getting together with family or friends for tea and a few delicacies to taste. It is a rather friendly brunch that usually takes place in the afternoon, around 3:30 and 5:00 PM.
Lunch lady, in Canada and the US, is a term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school cafeteria. The equivalent term in the United Kingdom is dinner lady.
And on NPR, food historian Helen Zoe Veit points out that in the past, especially in farming communities, the noon meal was the biggest one of the day. Which would explain why, in certain parts of the south, the word 'dinner' has persisted as a reference to the noon, rather than evening, meal.
Regionally it appeared that supper was used most in the Midwest and the South. Another of my friends provided this bit of background, “Dinner is considered to be the 'main' or largest meal of the day, whether it takes place at noon or in the evening. Supper is more specifically a lighter evening meal.
Some people in Britain and Australia refer to their main evening meal as "tea" rather than "dinner" or "supper", but generally, with the exception of Scotland and Northern England, "tea" refers to a light meal or a snack.
Q: HOW MANY OF CUPS OF TEA DO THE BRITISH DRINK EACH DAY? A: Approximately 100 million cups daily, which is almost 36 billion per year [Source: ITC].
A guide to tea time in England. There is nothing more British than tea time—an aromatic cup of tea, scones with jam and cream, cucumber sandwiches, and a slice of the lightest and fluffiest sponge. If you're planning a trip to England, do as the locals do and have your go at an afternoon tea.
British people typically call lunch "dinner." What do British people think of American English spellings like “color” and “labor”?
Because it's the normal word for the evening meal in some sections of society, mainly in the working class and in the north. Simple as that. In such places, dinner tended to be in the middle of the day and workers came home for it. So later on you have tea.
Breakfast: This is also called brekkie by some but not common. Breakfast is usually the same everywhere though the contents of breakfast will vary hugely. Both Britain and Ireland are famous for their cooked breakfast which is known as "full" or "cooked" breakfast.
Lilley and Skinner is Cockney slang for Dinner.
dish noun (ATTRACTIVE PERSON)
a sexually attractive person: He's gorgeous - what a dish!
As it turns out, one in four of us think that the only people who use the word supper are posh people. Aside from dinner and supper, another obvious name for our last meal of the day is “tea”. In fact, four in ten of us call it tea, and it turns out that we have assumptions about people who use that word, too.