square meal

English

WOTD – 20 February 2022

Etymology

A dinner dish with, among other things, roast chicken and broccoli. A complete and satisfying meal is known as a square meal.

From square (“hearty, vigorous”) +‎ meal; this sense of square (originally US) is possibly from the fact that square plates were used to serve food on ships.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skwɛə ˈmiːl/, /skwɛː-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skwɛɚ ˈmil/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːl

Noun

square meal (plural square meals)

1. (idiomatic) A (nutritionally) complete and satisfying meal, especially one suitable for a person performing physical labour.

   Synonym: (US, elliptical) square

   Three square meals a day should give you plenty of energy.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see square,‎ meal.
   • 2020, B. Wäppling Raaholt, “Influence of food geometry and dielectric properties on heating performance”, in Ulrich Erle, Peter Pesheck, Matthew Lorence, editors, Development of Packaging and Products for Use in Microwave Ovens, Woodhead Publishing, →DOI, →ISBN, page 82:

     [Figure 2.5] Simulation of overheating effects for two meals of different geometries […] Left: square meal (13 cm × 13 cm with corner diameter 2 cm and height 6 cm).

Related terms

• square deal (rhymes and shares a semantic theme of square as “adequate” and “proper”)
• three squares

Translations

complete and satisfying meal

• Belarusian: наедак m (najedak)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 飽餐／饱餐 (zh) (bǎocān), 美餐 (zh) (měicān)

• Estonian: tõhus söömaaeg
• Finnish: reilu ateria
• French: bouffe (fr) f (informal), boustifaille (fr) f (informal)
• Italian: pasto completo m
• Portuguese: refeição completa

See also

• packed lunch