meat

noun

ˈmēt 

1

a

: food

especially : solid food as distinguished from drink

b

: the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (such as a husk or shell)

2

: animal tissue considered especially as food:

a

: flesh sense 2b

also : flesh of a mammal as opposed to fowl or fish

b

: flesh sense 1a

specifically : flesh of domesticated animals

3

archaic : meal entry 1 sense 1

especially : dinner

4

a

: the core of something : heart

b

: pith sense 2b

a novel with meat

5

: favorite pursuit or interest

meated

ˈmē-təd 

adjective

meatless adjective

Synonyms

• flesh

Examples of meat in a Sentence

The restaurant serves a variety of meats.

The real meat of the book is found in its discussion of his economic plan.

Recent Examples on the Web

Freeze poultry and ground meat that won’t be used within 2 days; freeze other meat within 4 to 5 days. —Mike Snider, USA Today, 25 May 2025

Browning the onions before cooking the patties guarantees flavorful meat. —Elizabeth Nelson, Southern Living, 24 May 2025

Raw and cooked meats were touching one another in the Kelvinator chest freezer. —Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado, Sacbee.com, 23 May 2025

And while no one’s dish is a flat-out disaster, the problems that the judges point out are mostly about how the chefs mistreated their meats or masked the Indigenous ingredients. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 23 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English mete "food, meal," going back to Old English, going back to Germanic *mati- (whence Old Saxon meti, mat "food," Old High German maz, Old Norse matr, Gothic mats), perhaps going back to Indo-European *mod-i-, derivative of a verbal base *med- "become full," whence Greek mestós "full, satiated"

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing meat

• dark meat
• dead meat
• luncheon meat
• lunch meat
• meat and potatoes
• meat-ax
• meat loaf
• meat market
• meat sweats
• red meat
• variety meat
• white meat

Rhymes for meat

• beat
• beet
• bleat
• cheat
• cleat
• creat
• deet
• eat
• feat
• feet
• fleet
• greet

Kids Definition

meat

noun

ˈmēt 

1

a

: something eaten for nourishment

especially : solid food as distinguished from drink

b

: the edible part of something as distinguished from the covering (as a shell or husk)

walnut meat

2

: animal and especially mammal flesh used as food