Etymology From Middle English dynen, from Old French disner (“to dine, eat the main meal of the day”), from Vulgar Latin *disiūnāre (“to eat breakfast”), from *disieiūnāre (“to break the fast”), from Late Latin, from dis- + iēiūnō (“to fast”), from Latin ieiūnus.
1
To eat; to eat dinner or supper.
2
To give a dinner to; to furnish with the chief meal; to feed.
Brown accompanied his jolly landlord and the rest of his friends into the large and smoky kitchen, where this savoury mess reeked on an oaken table, massy enough to have dined Johnnie Armstrong and his merry-men.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 68:
I dined them, treated them, listened to the truth of their hearts, stole their names and through this means bluffed and bartered my way into courthouse, palace and colonial manor.2019 November 12, Claire North [pseudonym; Catherine Webb], chapter 60, in The Pursuit of William Abbey, New York, N.Y.: Orbit, →ISBN, page 328:
Etymology From Middle English dynen, from Old French disner (“to dine, eat the main meal of the day”), from Vulgar Latin *disiūnāre (“to eat breakfast”), from *disieiūnāre (“to break the fast”), from Late Latin, from dis- + iēiūnō (“to fast”), from Latin ieiūnus.