Supper or Tea or Dinner?

I think this 'High tea /afternoon tea' confusion is widespread maxdecatt. I often hear people refer to high tea when they obviously mean afternoon tea. I was quite sad to recently learn the The Savoy has changed their naming of afternoon tea to high tea to attract American tourists who might not understand the correct terminology.

As long as we have enough food it doesn't really mtter! My dear mum was a bit of a snob though and so she was always reminding us what was U or non U ha ha

The difference between dinner and supper, when you are talking of an evening meal, is that Dinner is a grand meal eaten in the dining room with the best china while supper is the evening meal that you eat in the kitchen, which is where most people eat these days.

Do not know anything about class distinctions, I am not a snob in either direction, but over my life time, the midday meal has been variously lunch or dinner and the evening meal has been variously dinner, supper, or tea, depending on what was being eaten, where it was being eaten, who it was being eaten with and what time it was being eaten.

simples Cherrytree

I have been brought up in the south and it has always been :Breakfast (early morning) Lunch (around midday) and Tea (around 5-6pm) and the only time you might have supper would be if you had somehow missed out on Tea......

Dinner around 7pm when DH gets home.

I always say breakfast, lunch, dinner. Tea is something I drink.

It's changed a bit for me. When I was a little girl, we had breakfast, dinner, tea and supper.
This tended to be because of Dads work in the pit (colliery). When he came off shift, he would have dinner around 2.30, whereas we children had our dinner at school, and we all had tea around 5 pm. If his shift was nights, dinner tended to be around 4.30 - 5 pm. Our supper (children) was something really light, e.g. a glass of milk and a biscuit.
On Saturday & Sunday, dinner was always around 2 pm, tea around 5 pm.
Nowadays, I have breakfast, lunch, dinner and no supper unless you count a cup of tea as supper!

Breakfast lunch or dinner at midday or thereabouts. Tea at 5–6pm. I always say I’m going out for a meal rather than a specific name

I'm with 00mam00 on the supper front. It's quite common round our part of the Marches to be invited to supper or even kitchen supper which is just what you imagine - Emma Bridgwater round the Aga and a tasty 2 course meal that we call dinner at our house as we don't have EB or an Aga! Midday meal chez nous is lunch although DH still refers to it as dinner after 38 years of me calling it lunch. Some habits never change!

Not sure it is a class thing, I'm ordinary, grew up on a council estate and always had breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an unnamed snack mid evening if wanted. Nowadays I rarely eat breakfast so have lunch and dinner. If lunch is the main meal, then dinner is skipped in favour of a light snack that doesn't get a name. Lunch is 12-2, dinner any time after 6. Canadian relatives always refer to supper and are not being pretentious, just their normal.

What has one's background got to do with what you call your meals and when you eat them?

Over 70+ years I seem to have used almost every word going for the day's meals and every time going. Even as a child times and vocabulary were mutable

Lunch at lunchtime i.e. 12 -2
Supper in the evening
Dinner if it's more formal.

Canadian Gran I know what you mean about European families and keeping children up late for supper.
In the hotter countries they have siesta in the afternoon along with something to eat. Then the whole family hit the town in the evening. I've seen children asleep under the table at midnight, that's when they're not roaring around making a nuisance of themselves!

Years ago when the AC were young, we used to often stay at a particular seaside hotel where high tea was served around 5 - 6.30 pm in the brasserie, mainly as an early meal for children who could then be got ready for bed and the grown-ups could have time to change and prepare themselves for dinner from 8 - 10pm served in the more formal dining room with candles and flowers on the tables and a grand piano with (obvs) a pianist.
High tea was usually various omelettes, ham egg and chips, baked potatoes with a choice of fillings, fish pie etc with assorted sides and salads plus puddings.
Wonderful memories. Staff used to check on the children whilst we dined.
Bowls of fresh fruit and newspapers delivered to our rooms daily.
The children used to have a continental breakfast in bed then a full English in the dining-room.
The housekeeping looked after us superbly.

All you folk who wouldn`t dream of eating anywhere but at the table would be horrified if they came here, we don`t have a table, no room for one, so we always eat on our knees, using a tray.

Midday is lunchtime....dinner between 5-6 in evening. But Sunday is different Dinner is always 1.30 in our house.

Lunch is around midday and dinner is in the evening after 6.00pm . It very much depends what part of the country you come from though. As. Southerner living I in the East Midlands I call it dinner my partner calls it tea.

callgirl I would rather do without a settee than not have a table and chair. I am at my most comfortable when sitting up at a table. eating or not.

Bluebelle, I've not heard the expression 'gravy dinner' for years. Thank you.

We usually eat around 6.30, when we have what I call supper, but which Mr P will call tea. (As in "what shall we have for tea tonight?)

I suspect that this is to wind me up, like when he says he's going into the lounge to sit on the settee, when he knows full well it's the sitting room and the sofa!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner is the meal at 7.30.
When I was a child I had 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, tea and supper.

For us northerners: Dinnertime is mid-day. Tea-time is about 5pm. For some people tea-time might be around 4pm if you are posh and having dinner at 8pm.

If we had supper it would be a bedtime drink and small snack but we don't have supper.

If invited out for Supper I would expect it to be an informal evening meal.

Years ago I confused a new friend - Italian and newly arrived in the UK - by inviting her round for Sunday dinner. When Sunday arrived she was expecting an evening meal and wasn't able to join us as she was busy over lunchtime.

Lunch is eaten between noon and one o’clock. Dinner is served between 6pm and 7pm. In my opinion, supper is a light, casual snack of cheese and crackers or something similar. Tea would be served between 3.30 and 4pm and would consist of Earl Grey and cake - rare occasion for us!

Phoenix, you do make me laugh! In our house it’s sofa and drawing room, never lounge as those are only found in hotels and airports. Some of my friends mock me for saying “drawing room” but c’est la vie! ?

Well our routine is out the window today.......pub lunch at 3pm (fresh haddock, homemade tartare sauce, chips and peas) so my “dinner” is a nice glass of chilled Sauvignon blanc. Husband is out and I have a GC sat on my feet playing on my iPad before “bedtime story” - blissful.