Dinner the main meal of the day, whether eaten at midday or in the evening. In Britain, the timing and composition of dinner has varied considerably over the centuries, and also regionally, by social class, and according to occasion. The same would be true, although sometimes with less striking differences, of other western countries, and the same principle of variation can be observed elsewhere—although the concept of ‘dinner’ begins to fray at the edges once one tries to transfer it to peoples whose languages and historical roots are quite different from those of Europe.
