Can you explain what supper is?

[beebee25]

I don't really understand what supper means.. is this a full meal or a snacky type thing? My boss puts she is meeting people for supper in her calendar. Is this dinner or am I missing the point?

Some people call dinner supper. Usually quite upper class people.

For others its a small meal either instead of dinner or an hour or so after dinner, depending on your appetite.

She is quite posh!

Cheese and cream crackers in your dressing gown in front of the telly after tea.

My PIL would call a light evening meal supper. Usually if they'd been out for a larger lunch.

So something like cheese or eggs on toast, cheese and biscuits, soup in colder weather.

Some people do just use supper to mean a normal evening meal.

Something I eat when dinner wasn't quite enough.....🤔🙈

I don't do supper but it's either very posh late dinner like Geoffrey Archer's famous shepherd pie parties or it's a late cup of cocoa with a couple of biscuits etc.

M mother calls dinner supper when she wants to be posh

Same for my parents… it was only when I got to university I realised it was what posh people called dinner!

Our main, family evening meal is supper. Dinner would be a more formal, multi course meal.
If I were meeting people for supper it is more likely to be a casual evening meal, usually in the kitchen if at home, or a brasserie/wine bar/pizzeria type place rather than a restaurant.

Ooh, will it be a proper Hyacinth Bucket Candlelight Supper then, if she's posh?

(edited accidental Bouquet)

We are in SE England and both DH and I say supper. Not posh. It was what our parents said.

Definitely not posh for me!

I grew up in a council house in NE Scotland,

Our meals were Breakfast, Dinner and Supper.

Dinner at night was only for very posh people!

@beebee25 , In your boss's case it will be an evening meal that's not a formal silver-service black tie dinner.
In my case it's a light evening meal eaten about 7pm.

I'm in the SE, not posh, and it's definitely NOT something like biscuits or crackers after the evening meal or before bedtime.

Not posh, but supper is our evening meal (so pasta/casserole/salad depending on the season; aka whatever we can find in the house/corner shop.

An evening “Dinner” would be multiple courses and a smart table and we’d probably make an effort to dress smartly or in summer linens at this time of year (and bring gifts).

Friend (who’s not actually posh) refers to their evening meal as supper. Maybe it’s a timing thing for her, as they eat late!
For me, it’s a snack before bed!

Yep, that's just what my Dad had!
Jacob's cream crackers with Dairylea spread triangles ( which we weren't allowed to touch).

(Not posh...)

My kids have supper - an apple, yoghurt or a bit of cereal before bed to prevent almost certain starvation during the night 🙄

I call it that because it's posh and sounds delicious.

For one side of my family, supper was the main evening meal eaten in the kitchen, so informal. Dinner for dinner parties with guests etc and more elaborate.

other side used dinner for the evening meal always eaten in the dining room, supper was a light snack much later in the evening, could be cooked, if you missed dinner.

If you’re northern and working class then it’s a snack about half an hour before bedtime. Acceptable snacks include: a slice of toast, buttered malt loaf, cream crackers (no cheese, it’ll give you nightmares) or digestive biscuits.
Yorkshire tea is the desired accompaniment.

In my posh friends house it was the main evening meal, which we called dinner.

In my house it was a bowl of cereal/ round of toast before bed.

In my experience is what's really posh people call dinner when it's more casual. So it wouldn't be a planned, formal dinner out. But they might pop out for a spot of supper at a local bistro. Or have friends round for supper. It all looks posh and extravagant to us so it's hard to tell the difference but it's a more low key, sort of like saying there's nothing in shall we just go to chippy/pub for tea?

If we went out for early evening drinks and went home and had a bowl of soup as we’d missed dinner, we’d call it supper. Not that we’d name it…

We have neighbours that have been known to invite us for a ‘kitchen supper’. This is informal and in the kitchen, as opposed to being invited for dinner which would be a bit posher and have several courses in the dining room.

It all depends on context.

Same as dinner.

Supper can be a pre bed snack for kids or a soirée for adults serving any version of a main meal.

Definitely depends who you are and where you're from... us northerners with working class roots would say it's a slice of toast and cuppa before bed (although not sure I've done that since I was a child!). My (again WC background but admittedly fancy job at the time) mum went through a phase of saying supper meaning to go out and eat until we told her how pretentious she sounded

Mind you I use dinner and tea interchangeably for my evening meal so maybe I need to hand back my full on northerner badge....

For us (Ireland), you had breakfast, lunch, dinner, possible supper; or breakfast, dinner, tea, possible supper. Dinner was your main cooked meal whenever you had it. Supper was a snack before bed.

But we knew about supper as a full meal in the evening from Hyacinth Bucket, Leonardo da Vinci and other such celebrities.