Lunch is a meal that is taken at noon or in the early afternoon. The term is short for "luncheon" (see below). Lunch is a newer word for what invariably used to be called "dinner," a word nowadays only sometimes used to mean a noontime meal in the British Isles, and in parts of the United States, Canada and Australia. In British schools female staff who serve lunch are often known as "dinner ladies", but never "lunch ladies".
