diet Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a prescribed selection of foods
  2. noun a legislative assembly in certain countries (e.g., Japan)
  3. noun the usual food and drink consumed by an organism (person or animal)
  4. noun the act of restricting your food intake (or your intake of particular foods)
    dieting.
  5. verb follow a regimen or a diet, as for health reasons
    • He has high blood pressure and must stick to a low-salt diet
  6. verb eat sparingly, for health reasons or to lose weight

WordNet

Di"et noun
Etymology
F. diète, L. diaeta, fr. Gr. manner of living.
Definitions
  1. Course of living or nourishment; what is eaten and drunk habitually; food; victuals; fare. "No inconvenient diet." Milton.
  2. A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed.
    To fast like one that takes diet. Shak.
Di"et transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dieted; present participle & verbal noun Dieting
Definitions
  1. To cause to take food; to feed. R. Shak.
  2. To cause to eat and drink sparingly, or by prescribed rules; to regulate medicinally the food of.
    She diets him with fasting every day. Spenser.
Di"et intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To eat; to take one's meals. Obs.
    Let him . . . diet in such places, where there is good company of the nation, where he traveleth. Bacon.
  2. To eat according to prescribed rules; to ear sparingly; as, the doctor says he must diet.
Di"et noun
Etymology
F. diète, LL. dieta, diaeta, an assembly, a day's journey; the same word as diet course of living, but with the sense changed by L. dies day: cf. G. tag day and Reichstag.
Definitions
  1. A legislative or administrative assembly in Germany, Poland, and some other countries of Europe; a deliberative convention; a council; as, the Diet of Worms, held in 1521.

Webster 1913