Dinner or tea?

Dinner (school dinners...) - our main meal was midday and my father came home from work for it. We had tea at about 5. We did have supper, a light snack with a cup of tea about 9pm.

We now refer to our midday snack as lunch but our evening meal still usually gets called "tea".

‘Lunch’ was something workmen had at about 10 o’ clock, to keep them going from breakfast to ‘dinner’ (midday meal).

‘Tea’ was at teatime, about 5 o’clock.

‘Supper’ was cocoa and a biscuit, or similar.

When I asked mum what ‘luncheon’ was, she said it was what posh people called dinner.

(Rural upbringing, in the 50’s).

Lunch called dinner & dinner called tea. I have largely mastered calling the midday meal lunch, but I cannot call our evening meal dinner - it's our tea.

I was brought up to think that dinner was the main meal of the day. So dogs and children had dinner in the middle of the day and adults ate luncheon in the middle of the day and dinner late in the evening.
Afternoon tea was a cup of tea, bread and cakes served between 4 and 5pm.
Nursery tea was served at 6pm and was often something on toast and pudding if you were lucky.

Needless to say I have been confused about what to call meals ever since.

Septimia

Dinner (school dinners...) - our main meal was midday and my father came home from work for it. We had tea at about 5. We did have supper, a light snack with a cup of tea about 9pm.

We now refer to our midday snack as lunch but our evening meal still usually gets called "tea".

I think most people we knew, as well as ourselves, couldn’t eke the food out to provide an extra meal so suppers just didn’t happen, though my sister and I would sometimes scoff a bag of chips between us when out with our friends after tea.

Another Northerner here. Obviously we had dinner in the middle of the day. We took our dinner money to school on a Monday to pay for our school dinners. Our Sunday dinner was always served at 1pm on Sunday.
When we got home from school we had tea. We never had supper and my mother sent us to bed at an obscenely early hour until I went to high school and didn't even get home until after 5pm with a mountain of homework.

valdavi

Lunch called dinner & dinner called tea. I have largely mastered calling the midday meal lunch, but I cannot call our evening meal dinner - it's our tea.

Same here.

We said lunch and dinner, South of England 1960s,I dont eat lunch as I have breakfast quite late and I still say dinner even though it is usually a sandwich, I eat biscuits or cake in the evening but do not call it anything. For some odd reason I cannot stand the word supper.

I was raised in London, Mediterranean and S E Essex.

Lunch was either at home or at school approximately any time between 12-2pm, tea was on return from school, small sandwich, snack etc., Dinner was and still is anytime from 7.30pm, later in the summer.

Growing up dinner was served at lunchtime and the evening meal, regardless of what was on the menu, was tea. I have fond memories of our Dad coming home from work for his 'tea' which was meat, potatoes, veggies and gravy but it was never called 'dinner' because it was served at tea-time.
Supper was a drink and a biscuit before bed.

valdavi

Lunch called dinner & dinner called tea. I have largely mastered calling the midday meal lunch, but I cannot call our evening meal dinner - it's our tea.

Exactly this.

Astitchintime

Growing up dinner was served at lunchtime and the evening meal, regardless of what was on the menu, was tea. I have fond memories of our Dad coming home from work for his 'tea' which was meat, potatoes, veggies and gravy but it was never called 'dinner' because it was served at tea-time.
Supper was a drink and a biscuit before bed.

We had meat with veggies, mash, gravy and yorkshires for Sunday dinner at about 2pm on Sunday, tea that day would be a slice of toast and a cup of milky tea.
During the week we didn’t have a joint of meat, would be stew made with what my old mum called ‘scrag end’ served with dumplings, hotpot made with a lamb bone, sausage and chips, or ox tail stew. Dessert would be tinned fruit with evaporated milk or rice pudding.

Lunch and dinner here, although at home it’s always brunch, a late breakfast, if we’re staying in an hotel, breakfast and dinner, main meal about 7:30. As child I had elevenses, squash and a biscuit or two.

In our home, lunch is between 1 & 2, dinner between 6:30 & 7:30.

Tea is mid afternoon - whenever children arrive round from school or my husband is in for directing/ managing our daughters.

I was a bit confused when a new friend invited me to supper. Supper for us was a cup of tea and biscuits around 9 in the evening.
I have lunch around 12.30 and dinner early evening.

As a child we always had breakfast of cereal and toast, elevenses - a drink and biscuit, lunch at 1.30, dinner in the evening at 6 and supper - a drink and biscuit before bed.
We always had school dinners and that was the only time we heard the midday meal called dinner.
At weekends we had our main meal at lunch time and had high tea in the evening. High tea was usually something like eggs or other light cooked meal followed by cake.
We lived in London but my mother was a northerner. The high tea was very northern.

AGAA4

I was a bit confused when a new friend invited me to supper. Supper for us was a cup of tea and biscuits around 9 in the evening.
I have lunch around 12.30 and dinner early evening.

I think supper as a meal is more middle/upper class. I recall the inimitable Patricia Routledge as the aspiring middle class Mrs Bucket in keeping up appearances would frequently refer to her candlelit suppers.

I was brought up in Yorkshire, we had breakfast, dinner and tea. Although these days I seem to refer to
breakfast , lunch and tea?

We never had supper! It was tea and early bed. I loved sleeping at my cousins house because my auntie gave us supper - a drink of milk and a biscuit. Supper was unheard of in our house!

Brought up in the south, lunch was middle of the day and dinner in the early evening.
We were once invited to supper which I thought rather odd because to us it was a very light snack we had just before bedtime. We did eventually, rather late in the day, twig that it was dinner but were rather late!

I'm from the North too.

On a school day:
I had school "dinners" and took in my "dinner money", then had "tea" (a meal) with my grandmother or "tea" (snack) on getting home from school - before eating with parents at about 7pm. The evening meal was called "dinner" by my parents.

At the weekend and holidays my mid-day meal was called lunch.
Depending on the time the evening meal was eaten it was "tea" or "dinner"

Supper was only a (rare) snack before bed.

I had friends who went to boarding school and their evening meal was "supper".

😂

Regional differences. apply with this. I'm in the South East. Now lunch is middle of the day, can be light, soup or a sandwich or a full meal, as in having 'lunch out' restaurant meal. Or it could be brunch, late breakfast early lunch which would suffice till dinnet. Tea would be the middle of the afternoon, cup of tea, slice of cake, more occasional. Or children's meal after school that would be tea if they eat later, after 6 then it's dinner. We usually eat the main meal, dinner in the evening around 7ish. Roasts on Sunday with the family are called lunch even though we eat those around 4ish.

Back in my childhood it went like this. On school days the dreaded school dinners were served at lunchtime. Tea a meal between 4 and 5 at home. Sunday roasts middle of the day those were called dinner, tea lighter meal around 5ish, but if we had an evening meal at home later it would be dinner. Something cooked at tea time on Saturdays, not as heavy as a dinner, but more than tea, treat type of food which for me were chipolatas and grilled tomatoes and something nice afterwards whilst watching "Thank Your Lucky Stars" that would be supper.

When growing up we ate breakfast, dinner, tea and supper with dinner our main meal.
Now we still have our dinner at about 12:30, and our supper at about 7pm. Supper is usually a sandwich, or cheese on toast.

Breakfast, lunch and supper at 7 on the kitchen table, dinner if it’s in the dining room with guests and it’s usually later.