lunch pail
3
2.5
- noun
- /lʌnʧ peɪl/
- US
:
lonchera
- While he went on to the house, I pried open the lunch pail, pulled out oily brown paper wrappers, green apple cores—it seemed bottomless, like the mines.
They have these these sort of like lunch pails that they call grails eventually.
- They have these these sort of like lunch pails that they call grails eventually.
Examples
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His shiny lunch pail held gifts for me.
Fiction book (1992) -
He rolls up his sleeves, puts his sandwich in his lunch pail...
-
Clean out your lunch pail too, okay?
-
Hey, who got my lunch pail?
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What you do is you keep an extra pair of socks in your pocket, one in your lunch pail.
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His lunch pail and his raincoat are still in the basement.
-
He is at the car door, lunch pail in hand, when Wilma calls out to him.
Fiction book (1994) -
Here's your lunch pail.
-
Through the kitchen window, I watched him emerge from the Pontiac, black lunch pail and silver thermos in hand, the back of his khaki-colored work shirt darkened by a huge blotch of sweat shaped like a football.
Fiction book (1991) -
On Monday, my two brothers and I would have cold beef sandwiches in our lunch pail.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A flexible container for carrying personal things like books or clothes
26
1.0
A round container with a handle used to carry water or other things
20
2.0
A brand of plastic boxes with lids used to keep food fresh
15
1.0
A container for carrying food to eat at work or school
13
2.5
A small plastic bag used to hold food or small items
12
1.8
A large strong cloth container with two long handles for carrying books or shopping
1
1.1
A bag students use to carry books and school supplies
1
1.0
A bag for carrying books and school things
A metal container used to carry a hot homemade lunch
A small metal container workers use to carry lunch to work
A container that workers use to carry their lunch or dinner to work
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a container used for carrying lunch' is directly and compositionally derived from 'lunch' (a mid-day meal) plus 'pail' (a handled container). This simple noun–noun compounding follows transparent, productive patterns found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Lunch pail comes from the everyday picture of a worker carrying a metal or wooden pail with a handle to hold their lunch while they travel to the job. So, it means 'a container for a midday meal' and often brings to mind hardworking people who take food from home.