diner

UK/ˈdaɪ̯nə/US/ˈdaɪ̯nɚ/

nounB22 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,140 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: diners

A diner is a person eating a meal in a restaurant. Fellow diners, the diners applauded, a solo diner.

It is the word restaurants use about their own customers, and it appears in reviews and complaints far more than in ordinary speech. In American English a diner is also a small cheap restaurant, originally built to look like a railway dining car — which is where the shiny chrome ones came from. Note dine, dining.

Definitions of diner

1noundinerA person eating a meal in a restaurant.B2
“The diners at the next table complained that their food was cold.”
- Said"We were the last diners there; they were stacking chairs around us."
- WrittenThe diners fell silent as the plate went past, then all wanted the same thing.
- UsedGreet every diner at the door within thirty seconds of arrival.
- ContrastA diner, not a guest. A guest was invited and pays nothing; a diner chose the place and gets the bill. guest →
- Not thisThe cook is not a diner. A diner is the person eating, at the table, from the menu.
- Exchange"How many diners tonight?""Forty booked. Sixty if it rains."
- SimplyThe diners sit and eat. The waiter brings the food.
Patterna regular diner · diners at + restaurant · a table of diners · dine
2nounsmallA small cheap restaurant, in American use.B2
“We stopped at a roadside diner for coffee and pancakes.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

diner is a person eating, or an eating place.

Remember it

DINEr → the one who DINEs

The person at the table eating dinner in a restaurant: the diner.

Where it comes from

Latin
ieiūnus
Vulgar Latin
*disiūnō — to eat breakfast
Old French
disner — to dine, eat the main meal of the day
Middle English
dynen
English
dine
English, today
diner

Built from

iēiūnō · Latin — to fast

From dine + -er. dine comes from Middle English dynen, from Old French disner (“to dine, eat the main meal of the day”), from Vulgar Latin disiūnō (“to eat breakfast”), from disieiūnāre (“to break the fast”), from Latin -, from dis- + iēiūnō (“to fast”), from Latin ieiūnus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

diner in the wild

A diner is a type of restaurant found across the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Western Europe and Australia.
Diner
As a result, many early diners were typically small and narrow to fit onto a rail car or truck.
Diner
The diner is regarded as one of the best theme restaurants in New York owing to its singing waitstaff.
Ellen's Stardust Diner
The Roxy was a diner serving American cuisine in Portland, Oregon.
The Roxy (Portland, Oregon)
Fuller's Coffee Shop is a diner serving standard American cuisine in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District, in the United States.
Fuller's Coffee Shop

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the disner family

dinner

diner — used about once every 271 pages · #2,140 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of diner

1noundinerA person eating a meal in a restaurant.B2

“The diners at the next table complained that their food was cold.”

Said"We were the last diners there; they were stacking chairs around us."
WrittenThe diners fell silent as the plate went past, then all wanted the same thing.
UsedGreet every diner at the door within thirty seconds of arrival.
ContrastA diner, not a guest. A guest was invited and pays nothing; a diner chose the place and gets the bill. guest →
Not thisThe cook is not a diner. A diner is the person eating, at the table, from the menu.
Exchange"How many diners tonight?""Forty booked. Sixty if it rains."
SimplyThe diners sit and eat. The waiter brings the food.

Patterna regular diner · diners at + restaurant · a table of diners · dine

2nounsmallA small cheap restaurant, in American use.B2

“We stopped at a roadside diner for coffee and pancakes.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

diner is a person eating, or an eating place.