What time is "dinner/supper time" for you?

[Yvaine]

Given my druthers, I'd snack at 4 and have dinner at about 7. It doesn't always work that way,

When I was a kid, we called the evening meal "supper" (and the midday one "lunch"--it wasn't dinner either) but I gradually realized everyone I knew outside the family was calling it "dinner," and followed suit.

[Lady Snowdon]

Depends on how lazy we are.    Typically we eat between 6 and 7 pm.  If we make reservations or go out to dinner, it's often later than that, so we can allow time to get home, take care of the dog, and go out.  If we're both being lazy and not wanting to get up and fix anything, dinner could be as late as 8:30 or 9 - not terrible good when I go to bed between 9:30 and 10!

[Hmmmmm]

Family dinner during the week is usually around 7.  But some nights we eat between 6 and 6:30 because of 7:30 meeting my DH has and sometimes it might not be till 8.

On weekends if it it just the family it's usually between 7 and 7:30. If we are doing a dinner party we usually have them over at 7 and serve around 8. 

Growing up, dinner was always 6:00pm and I remember my mom being stressed trying to hit that mark since she worked till 5. We decided to eliminate that stress point and just say dinner is when dinner is.

[Shoo]

Our dinner time is different every day of the week.  It all depends on what activity my daughter has going on that day.  She has something every day of the week.

[katycoo]

Dinner is the evening meal.  We usually eat around 8-8.30.  I don't walk in the door from work until 7.30pm at the latest.

[snowdragon]

Betweem 5:30 and 6. Any later than that and I am ravenous ( lunch is between 10:30 and 11am)

[MrsCrazyPete]

We typically eat around 7:30. DH is a mailman, and gets home from work anywhere from 3-8, so it just kind of depends on how late he gets home.

If we're going out, especially with other people, we'll tell them to meet us 8 so we don't have to rush based on his work schedule.

[AylaM]

We eat whenever the food is done.  That is usually between 4 and 5.  This is because grandma cooks when she is ready for dinner and her day starts at like 5am.  So even if I am cooking then that is when I aim to get the food done, because otherwise she'll end up cooking even if it isn't her turn.

If I had my way? I'd probably be eating at around 7 or 8.  But I also wouldn't be waking up until about 11 or 12.  So my schedule would be:

1pm:  Lunch
7pm:  Dinner
1am:  Second Dinner

[Sootikin]

Dinner is the meal I'd eat in the middle of the day.  Supper is the meal I'd eat at night.  So none of the options really work.  I checked "earlier than 4" because of that.  (Because I've been around so many people that use it differently, I do often defer to the way it's now done and go ahead and use the word as the evening meal.  However, there's still a part of my mind that quietly says, "Ok, I'll do this because I have to, but that's not really the right word for this meal, darn it!")

ETA:  In terms of when I eat supper, it depends.  No earlier than 7:00 - sometimes as late as 10 or 11.

You couldn't tell from the times in the poll that the OP was asking about your evening meal?

We eat ours when one of us can be bothered to start cooking, usually anytime between 6 and 9pm.  When I was a kid it was around 5.30ish.

[jalutaja]

Here the word for dinner means "meal at noon"

So you can imagine how confusing English is for me.

[Ereine]

I don't eat a full meal in the evening, so if dinner means the biggest meal of the day it would be around noon. My evening food is around six pm, I usually have tea and bread or yoghurt with fruit or something like that. We didn't eat dinner when I was growing up, after maybe my early childhood. I think that it got too complicated for my mother with all our hobbies and things so it was changed and I've gotten out of the habit of eating two larger meals a day. 

[Hmmmmm]

Here the word for dinner means "meal at noon"

So you can imagine how confusing English is for me.

The word dinner evolved over the years.  The time referred to the largest meal for the day, which in more agricultura communities was the mid day meal.  Then a lighter supper was served in the evenings.  But when family life changed and families were seldom eating together during the mid day, the largest dinner was in the evenings.

My parents both grew up in the 1930/1940.  Through the 1970s while i was growing up, they referred to our evening meal as supper but the mid day meal was lunch.  The only meal they referred to as dinner was the large mid day meal we would have after church on Sundays.  But by the1980s they had dropped supper,we're using dinner for they evening meal.  Occasionally mom would refer to a meal as supper if she planned to serve a really light meal later in the evening. 

So it is very understandable why people are confused by the word.

[jalutaja]

The word dinner evolved over the years.  The time referred to the largest meal for the day, which in more agricultura communities was the mid day meal.  Then a lighter supper was served in the evenings.  But when family life changed and families were seldom eating together during the mid day, the largest dinner was in the evenings.

My parents both grew up in the 1930/1940.  Through the 1970s while i was growing up, they referred to our evening meal as supper but the mid day meal was lunch.  The only meal they referred to as dinner was the large mid day meal we would have after church on Sundays.  But by the1980s they had dropped supper,we're using dinner for they evening meal.  Occasionally mom would refer to a meal as supper if she planned to serve a really light meal later in the evening. 

So it is very understandable why people are confused by the word.

Thank you for the thought provoking answer!

Here the difference is that the midday break in middle of day is still called "dinner break" and the word for afternoon is after dinner and so on, hence we cannot easily change word usage.

Unless we give up our own language and start speaking English. And that might happen easily even during my lifetime.

[Dazi]

I tend to be up early and usually go to bed between 9-10.  I eat dinner about 5:30, 6:30 on gym nights.  I will eat a very light snack about 8 if I'm hungry.

[VorFemme]

Growing up - we ate breakfast, lunch, and supper every day - "Dinner" was saved for eating out, eating at other people's houses, or the BIG meal (Sunday dinner was after church around 1 pm - Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter dinners might be any time between 1 and 3 pm with a later meal prepared from leftovers about the time of the usual "supper").

Today - dinner & supper get used interchangeably while I am fixing the evening meal - even if it is a ham & cheese omelette (usually served for a combination breakfast/lunch on weekends around our house)!