brunch

plural brunches

1. countableuncountableA meal eaten later in the day than breakfast and earlier than lunch, often in a leisurely, festive, and/or social way, and often consisting of typical foods from both of those meals.

   Let's do brunch sometime at the salad bar!

   3 more examples

   I normally have brunch at the café next to work.

   Feeling a bit peckish, Sandra made herself some brunch with the leftovers in her fridge.

   I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch.

   April 15 1993, Adam I. Lapidus, “The Front”, in Rich Moore, director, The Simpsons, season 4, episode 19, spoken by Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta)

present singular third person brunches · participle present brunching · participle past brunched · past brunched

1. intransitiveTo eat brunch.
2. raretransitiveTo serve brunch to.

   “I visited him out in Petaluma, and I lunched and brunched him ferociously,” Kramer recalls.

   1987, “The Strategist: With Friends Like These”, in Esquire, volume 107, New York, N.Y., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 63, column 3

   5 more examples

   At Ivar House, the same noon, chic Mrs. Sidney Johnson of Pasadena brunched her eastern guest, Katherine Cudlip, then waited patiently while she practically bought out the gift shop.

   1943 February 13, “Lucy Quirk”, in Daily News, Los Angeles, Calif., →OCLC, page 15, column 6

   Deltas brunched them on Sunday at the YWCA . . . and in between there was the dance given by local AKAs, a semi-formal affair, on Saturday night . . . with a closed gathering at Loendi Club afterwards.

   1947 May 3, Toki Schalk Johnson [pseudonym; Gertrude Schalk], “[Toki Types: About People Here and There] The AKAs Invade Pittsburgh . . .”, in Pittsburgh Courier, national edition, volume XXXVIII, number 18, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 8, column 1

   Numerous kindly souls delightedly phoned me, “You’ll never guess what I’ve got for the first time in my life—evening grosbeaks.” And the best I could answer was, “For heaven’s sake, hang on to them!” But they finally caught up with me in flocks of from 35 to 200 or so. I gave them a huge breakfast at 7 a. m., repeated it at 9:30, and brunched them at 11. Then I shooed the whole crowd away.

   1949 November 18, Of Thee I Sing [pseudonym], “Birds I Know”, in The Boston Daily Globe, volume CLVI, number 141, Boston, Mass.: Globe Newspaper Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 36, column 4

   My hosts there were caller Ken and Judy Curtis, who met me, shuttled me, brunched me, equipped me, dined me, partied me, plunged me, slept me, and breakfasted me, royally. What more could one ask?

   1979, American Squaredance, volume 34, Huron, Oh.: Burdick Enterprises, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9, column 2

   Athena Troxel, chairman of Monday’s Nordstrom fashion show at the Fairmont, a benefit for Project Open Hand, had a relatively low-key birthday this year — just a blitz of dining out with indulgent friends (Susan Andrews lunched her at Trader Vic’s; Debbie Bocci took her to Donatello; Lilly Preiner picked up the tab at PosTrio; Kjorina Peterson brunched her at Campton Place; and her mother organized a barbecue).

   1989 July 11, Bea Pixa, “Bea Pixa’s San Francisco”, in San Francisco Examiner, 125th year, number 26, San Francisco, Calif., →ISSN, →OCLC, page B-2, columns 4–5