Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
fast food

fast food

111 1.0
Cheap food that is already cooked and sold to eat quickly, like hamburgers or fried chicken
  • noun
  • /fæst fud/
translation icon : comida rápida
  • I often eat at a fast food restaurant when I'm short on time.
  • a fast food restaurant
  • a fast food chain
  • eat fast food

Sardinia, you're starting to see fast food restaurants show up.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I had a fast food hamburger without the bun.

  • Order healthier choices when you are at a fast food or sit-down restaurant.

    Academic text (2013)

  • What would be your fast food restaurant of choice?

  • Well, it's fast food, high fat, high sugar.

  • It's quick and just like fast food, it's not good for you.

  • Looks like fast food tonight.

    The Croods (2013)

  • We're going to bring in some fast food lunch in a sack.

  • McDonald's I would say best fast food around.

  • So instead we're going to be doing a vegan fast food taste test.

  • When they became hungry, they didn't just stop by a fast-food place or call out for pizza.

    Fiction book (1997)

Synonyms

takeout food
vsfast food
  • US
3 1.4

Food made by a restaurant or shop to eat somewhere else

is sold cheaply and served quickly by restaurants for immediate consumption
quickie meal
vsfast food
  • Informal
3.6

A quick, simple meal you make and eat when short on time

is served cheaply by restaurants focused on fast service

How Fast

quickie meal
  • Informal
3.6
fast food
111 1.0

Surface Forms

fast food singular
fast foods plural

Morphology

fast + food

The sense 'inexpensive food prepared and served quickly' is directly derivable from combining 'fast' (quick) with 'food' (things eaten): it denotes food that is prepared/served quickly. This compositional pattern is common across languages and follows a standard adjective + noun modification, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase fast food comes from the literal idea of fast food: meals cooked and given to customers very quickly at roadside stands or drive-through windows so busy people could eat without waiting. That's why today it means 'cheap meals prepared and served quickly'.