1. Grass seed grown in an agricultural industry that is ground and used for food for both animals and humans: Marina's favorite hot cereal in the winter is a ground meal of twelve different grain seeds.
2. Food that is served and presented to be eaten: The meals that were available to the passengers on the ship provided a variety of choices.
3. Any of the occasions for eating food that occur by custom or habit at more or less fixed times: Adele and David were invited to join their friends for a meal the following evening.
4. Etymologies:

1. meal: "food, time for eating", Old English mael, "fixed time, a measure, a meal".
2. meal: "ground grain", Old English melu, from West Germanic melwan, "grind".