Dinner or tea?

Breakfast, dinner, main meal, tea,sandwiches, beans on toast, then milk and couple of biscuits at supper time, which was about 8 pm.
Wasn't until I went south it became the posh lunch.

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, Dinner, maybe supper if we skipped Dinner but it would be something light.

Dinner & tea in Yorkshire

As a child it was dinner and tea at 5.30

I’m from Devon and Mr MBW is from County Durham. We were both brought up having breakfast, dinner and tea and we still refer to them as such.

I come from the north and was often criticised by posher southerners for calling the evening meal "tea". Now we call it supper, even if we have it at tea time to suit the grandchildren. However I think that a roast at any time is often called a "roast dinner".
It's quite noticeable that the phrase "school dinner" has gradually disappeared, though "dinner money" was in general use when my own children were at school. Recent press discussions of free meals always seem to call it "free school meals" or "lunch". Maybe it is the word "dinner" that is dying out, except for "going out for dinner".

As a Southerner, now living in the North (via Spain), lunch 1.30-2.30pm, dinner 7-7.30pm. Tea...a drink. However, I have noticed everyone 'up North' calls lunch, dinner and dinner, tea. Cup of tea they call 'a brew' ??

Breakfast as a child was porridge in winter, cereal in summer. Occasionally bacon and egg which my dad called a 'proper' breakfast.'

Dinner was a hot meal at mid-day which was why we had 'dinner ladies' at school.

Tea could be a hot snack like beans on toast, or a sandwich with cake. Sometimes we had cheese and egg done under the grill.

Supper could be toasted crumpets, toasted bread or another bowl of cereal before bed.

When I married my husband hated me calling a bedtime snack 'supper' because he said only posh peope called it that!

We use breakfast (early) brunch (later breakfast) lunch (middle of the day meal) tea (about 4pm with a scone or slice of cake) dinner (evening meal) supper (something very light instead of dinner about dinner time)

I need to add we absolutely do NOT have all the above meals every day

We have had similar threads before.

In my experience what meals are called and when they are eaten depends on the following factors:

where and when you were born, and what the mealconsisted of and when it was eaten.

My grandparents who grew up in Edinburgh and spent most of their working lives in Bradford ate their main meal at middday and called it dinner. They had tea after Grandpa came home from work at night.

This was common practice amongst their generation in Scotland and a great deal of the north of England.

My parents' generation ate lunch - quick, cooked meal, in the middle of the day. It's main function was a stop-gap between breakfast and dinner, eaten about 6 p.m. Some families still ate dinner at midday, but most men did not come home from work during a dinner-break at midday, so the main meal tended to be eaten in the evening.

My Danish relatives who lived in Copenhagen, ate a cold lunch either at home or at work /school in the middle of the day, and a cooked dinner at night. Those who lived in the country still ate dinner at midday, and a cold meal in the evening.

I have heard the word "supper" as a child, but only used in other regions of the UK to where we lived. In the Glasgow area, some families had afternoon tea - mainly something enjoyed by ladies visiting friends in the afternoon, and some called their evening meal High Tea, where a cooked dish was eaten. It resembled lunch as far as the cooked, often fried food went, but tea was drunk at it, which was not usual at lunch.

People who had dinner at around midday, when did the dads get theirs?
Or the mums, come to think of it?

Who cooked it?

Evening meal. Perfect term. Thank you eazybee

There are the complexities of 'afternoon tea', tea served in bone china cups with a selection of cakes and biscuits (as served at Downton Abbey) to tide you though until dinner, or 'high tea', usually something cooked, followed by a pudding or cake and eaten by people who worked outside, and worked up an appetite. Then of course, a 'kitchen supper' for those with a kitchen large, and smart enough, in which to entertain.
None of the above applies to me; I have lunch and an evening meal!

Breakfast dinner and tea. Supper was a glass of milk 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.

I'm exactly the same!

Northern England - Breakfast, dinner, and tea as a child, hot choc at bedtime.

In Hull, where I grew up, a narrow alley was a "tenfoot" and I have never heard it anywhere but Hull.

I remember when my son started school inviting a friend back for tea -( a drink, sandwich and a cake) the embarrassment when the mum turned up and thought her son had had his dinner.
As Londoners we grew up having breakfast, lunch and dinner but on Sunday at about 6 we would have a lighter meal known as supper

Busybeejay1

Greetings from a fellow Boltonian.I would say Ginnel.Had to put a capital G otherwise it wouldn’t recognise it!
Barbara
I grew up in Smithills area..How about you.

From Accrington originally.
We say ginnel.
Some call it a snicket. Am sure there are other words for a narrow alley.

I’ve always known lunch to be a midday meal and dinner is around 6ish but if the dinner is a light meal then it’s called tea.

Greetings from a fellow Boltonian.I would say Ginnel.Had to put a capital G otherwise it wouldn’t recognise it!
Barbara
I grew up in Smithills area..How about you.

Mainly used ' tea' for what is now the evening meal , when growing up in the 1960s/70s, but lunch started used for midday meal after my dad stopped coming home at lunchtime when the dinner break was shortened from an hour and a quarter to an hour. Whenever we said what's for tea or what's for dinner my mother assume we meant the evening meal. We never had supper, as that was a meal the Posh folks had after 7 pm. I don't eat supper, and I don't really like being invited for 'supper,' , as I am uncertain if it's a late full meal or a bedtime snack .I now get I digestion if I eat after 7.30 p.m

Babs03

When I was growing up in a small mill town in Lancashire we called lunch ‘dinner’ and we called dinner ‘tea’. We didn’t have supper and can’t remember anyone using the word supper at all.
What did you call it?

Like you my upbringing was in a Lancashire town too (Bolton) and like you dinner was your midday meal and tea was your evening meal. Seems odd now looking back but it’s what we were brought up with. One thing I can’t shake off from my Lancashire upbringing is the name of that gap between houses, although down here in Sussex they call it a Twitten to me it was and will always be a Ginnel!!

We had breakfast dinner and tea we had school dinners or soup beans or egg at home. Our tea was what our mum called pot luck whatever she could make with every type of offal. Our dad grew fruit and vegetables especially in the summer he was brilliant at growing tomatoes. We spent the summer months foraging fruit our mum and dad spent Saturdays making pies and crumbles I still do that now.
Although most of the 1960s was pretty miserable on Merseyside especially if your dad worked in a factory they were always on strike. Sunday breakfast the choice was bacon or salt fish if you got up early enough or you missed out so it was just cereal. Sunday dinner was about 2pm and tea was at 5pm we never had supper but our mum did her best and we appreciated it.

Growing up it was always dinner at lunchtime and tea after school.
Now I have lunch in the middle of the day and dinner at 6 ish.

grannyactivist - I love a cheese and biscuits supper!