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dish.

A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪʃ/
  1. A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The contents of such a vessel.

    countable · uncountable
    a dish of stew
  3. A specific type of prepared food.

    countable · metonymically · uncountable
    a vegetable dish
    this dish is filling and easily made
  4. Tableware (including cutlery, etc, as well as crockery) that is to be or is being washed after being used to prepare, serve and eat a meal.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    It's your turn to wash the dishes.
  5. A type of antenna with a similar shape to a plate or bowl.

    countable · uncountable
    satellite dish
    radar dish
  6. Something that fits someone's tastes, interests, or abilities.

    countable · dated · informal · uncountable
    Going to the club is not my dish.
  7. A sexually attractive person.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    quite a dish
  8. The state of being concave, like a dish, or the degree of such concavity.

    countable · dated · uncountable
    the dish of a wheel
  9. A hollow place, as in a field.

    countable · uncountable
  10. The home plate.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  11. A trough in which ore is measured.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  12. That portion of the produce of a mine which is paid to the land owner or proprietor.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  13. Gossip.

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dissh, disch, from Old English disċ (“plate; bowl; dish”), from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“table; dish”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *dъska, whence Bulgarian дъска́ (dăská), Polish deska, Russian доска́ (doská)), Russian чан (čan)) from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, desk, disc, discus, disk, and diskos. Cognates Cognate with Scots disch (“dish; plate”), Dutch dis (“table”), German Low German Disk, Disch (“table”), German Tisch (“table”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish disk (“dish; counter”), Icelandic diskur (“dish; plate”), Finnish tiski (“desk, counter; dish”). Compare the identical meaning expansion (vessel for food, then also content of such a vessel, then also specific type of food): Bulgarian блю́до (bljúdo), Russian блю́до (bljúdo). For the roundness aspect, compare Polish rondel (“pan, saucepan”) (< Latin rotundus (whence also English round)), Slovene krožnik < krog. Also compare typologically Proto-Slavic *misъka << Latin mēnsa; Ancient Greek πίναξ (pínax) (several meanings).

verb/dɪʃ/
  1. To put in a dish or dishes; serve, usually food.

    transitive
  2. To gossip; to relay information about the personal situation of another.

    informal · slang
  3. To insult, speak ill of.

    slang
  4. To make concave, or depress in the middle, like a dish.

    transitive
    to dish a wheel by inclining the spokes
  5. To frustrate; to beat; to outwit or defeat.

    archaic · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dissh, disch, from Old English disċ (“plate; bowl; dish”), from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“table; dish”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *dъska, whence Bulgarian дъска́ (dăská), Polish deska, Russian доска́ (doská)), Russian чан (čan)) from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, desk, disc, discus, disk, and diskos. Cognates Cognate with Scots disch (“dish; plate”), Dutch dis (“table”), German Low German Disk, Disch (“table”), German Tisch (“table”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish disk (“dish; counter”), Icelandic diskur (“dish; plate”), Finnish tiski (“desk, counter; dish”). Compare the identical meaning expansion (vessel for food, then also content of such a vessel, then also specific type of food): Bulgarian блю́до (bljúdo), Russian блю́до (bljúdo). For the roundness aspect, compare Polish rondel (“pan, saucepan”) (< Latin rotundus (whence also English round)), Slovene krožnik < krog. Also compare typologically Proto-Slavic *misъka << Latin mēnsa; Ancient Greek πίναξ (pínax) (several meanings).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.