refreshments

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,649 of 15,258leans spoken

Refreshments are light food and drinks offered to guests. Serve refreshments, refreshments will be provided, light refreshments.

The word promises little on purpose: refreshments will be provided means tea and biscuits rather than a meal, and everybody understands that. It is a plural noun in this sense and is not used in the singular.

Definitions of refreshments

1nounrefreshmentsLight food and drinks offered to guests.B1+
“Refreshments will be served in the hall after the meeting.”
- Said"There'll be refreshments afterwards, so don't eat before you come."
- WrittenRefreshments were laid out in the hall: sandwiches cut small, and tea in a vast metal pot.
- UsedServe refreshments in the interval, not during the talk.
- ContrastRefreshments, not a meal. A meal fills you; refreshments keep you going until one. meal →
- Not thisA three-course dinner is not refreshments. Refreshments are light and eaten standing up.
- Exchange"Are there refreshments?""Coffee and biscuits. Enough to survive."
- SimplyThere are refreshments at the door. Take a cup.
Patternlight refreshments · serve / provide refreshments · refreshments will be available · a refreshment stand

refreshments is food and drink.

Remember it

REFRESHments → things that REFRESH you

Cold drinks and small bites at the back of the room: things to refresh the guests between speeches.

hooks ontorefresh

Where it comes from

Old French
refrescher
Middle English
refreschement
English
refreshment
English, today
refreshments

Built from

re- · Old French — again
fresche · Old French — fresh

refreshment Recorded since 1665; either directly or via Middle English refreschement, from Old French refrescher (12th century; modern French rafraîchir), itself from re- (“again”) + fresche (“fresh”) (modern French frais; from a Germanic source, cognate with Old High German frisc, modern German frisch, Dutch fris, etc.)

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of refreshments

1nounrefreshmentsLight food and drinks offered to guests.B1+

“Refreshments will be served in the hall after the meeting.”

Said"There'll be refreshments afterwards, so don't eat before you come."
WrittenRefreshments were laid out in the hall: sandwiches cut small, and tea in a vast metal pot.
UsedServe refreshments in the interval, not during the talk.
ContrastRefreshments, not a meal. A meal fills you; refreshments keep you going until one. meal →
Not thisA three-course dinner is not refreshments. Refreshments are light and eaten standing up.
Exchange"Are there refreshments?""Coffee and biscuits. Enough to survive."
SimplyThere are refreshments at the door. Take a cup.

Patternlight refreshments · serve / provide refreshments · refreshments will be available · a refreshment stand

refreshments is food and drink.