dine with Duke Humphrey

verb

To go without dinner.

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Meanings

verbdine with Duke Humphrey (third-person singular simple present dines with Duke Humphrey, present participle dining with Duke Humphrey, simple past and past participle dined with Duke Humphrey)

present singular third person dines with Duke Humphrey · participle present dining with Duke Humphrey · participle past dined with Duke Humphrey · past dined with Duke Humphrey

  1. archaicintransitiveTo go without dinner.

    When I want prouant wᵗʰ: Humfrie I sup, & when benighted, I repose in Powles wᵗʰ: waking soules, Yet neuer am affrighted. When I lack food, I go without it, and when benighted, I repose in St. Paul’s (graveyard) with ghosts, Yet am never scared.

    c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)
    1 more example

    It has been said that there is no instance, in modern times, of a Chuzzlewit having been found on terms of intimacy with the Great. But here again the sneering detractors who weave such miserable figments from their malicious brains, are stricken dumb by evidence. For letters are yet in the possession of various branches of the family, from which it distinctly appears, being stated in so many words, that one Diggory Chuzzlewit was in the habit of perpetually dining with Duke Humphrey.

    1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

    Synonyms: box Harry

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo go without dinner.

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Also see

Origin

Said to be from the practice of the poor gentry, who beguiled the dinner hour by a promenade near the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in Old Saint Paul's.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

dine with Duke Humphrey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dine%20with%20Duke%20Humphrey

MLA

“dine with Duke Humphrey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dine%20with%20Duke%20Humphrey. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dine with Duke Humphrey,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dine%20with%20Duke%20Humphrey.

Source: dine with Duke Humphrey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.