English

Noun

undermeal ‎(plural undermeals)

1. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) The afternoon.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Chaucer:

     In undermeals and in mornings.

   • 1599, Nash, Leuten Stuff:

     By the time—he hath din'd at a taverne, and slept his undermeals at a bawdy-house, his purse is [empty].

2. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) Something occurring or done in the afternoon, especially an afternoon meal, but also a nap, etc.
   • 1599, Nash, Leuten Stuff:

     In a narrower limit than the forty years' undermeal of the seven sleepers.

   • 1608, Withals:

     Another great supper, or undermeal, was made ready for them, coming home from ditching and plowing.

   • c. 1614–1631, Ben Johnson, Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy:

     I think I am furnished for [=with] Cather'ne pears, [enough] for one undermeal.

   • 1630, Samuel Ward, Sermon on the Life of Faith, quoted in 1883 in Kingsthorpiana; Or, Researches in a Church Chest, page 97:

     Why should not thy soul have her due drinks, breakfasts, meals, undermeals, bevers, and aftermeals, as well as thy body?'

References

• undermeal in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913