gentlemen's dinner
- noun
- /ˈdɪnər/
- Archaic
:
cena de caballeros
- The gentlemen's dinner required formal attire and followed a strict agenda.
Examples
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He was invited to the gentlemen's dinner to meet with potential clients.
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At the annual gentlemen's dinner, several important deals were discussed and agreed upon.
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The gentlemen's dinner was held at the prestigious club.
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Are you attending the gentlemen's dinner this Friday?
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At the annual gentlemen's dinner, several important deals were discussed and agreed upon.
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He was invited to the gentlemen's dinner to meet with potential clients.
-
The gentlemen's dinner required formal attire and followed a strict agenda.
Synonyms
75
1.0
An event where people are invited to eat dinner together
4
3.3
A dinner where guests wear very smart clothes and follow strict manners
Surface Forms
Morphology
gentlemen's + dinner
The compound is compositionally built from 'gentlemen' (men, with a polite/formal connotation) + 'dinner' (an evening meal), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer it denotes a dinner for men. The sense of formality is signalled by 'gentlemen' and is cross-linguistically common; while specific nuances (e.g. business discussion) may require context, the core meaning is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
The phrase gentlemen's dinner comes from the old custom of gentlemen meeting over a dinner to eat in formal clothes and talk business. So gentlemen's dinner means 'a formal dinner attended by men, typically to discuss business or professional matters'.