Definition of "banquet" in English

noun

1. A large celebratory meal; a feast.

2. A ceremonial dinner party for many people.

3. (archaic) A dessert; a course of sweetmeats.

verb

1. (intransitive) To participate in a banquet; to feast.

2. (obsolete) To have dessert after a feast.

   • 1580, George Cavendish, quoted by John Stow (ed.), The Annales of England, Faithfully collected out of the most autenticall Authors, Records, and other Monuments of Antiquitie, 1600 edition, “Henry the eight.,” p. 907, Then was the banquetting chamber in the tilt yard at Greenewich, to the which place these strangers were conducted by the noblest personages in the court, where they did both sup and banquet.

3. (transitive) To treat with a banquet or sumptuous entertainment of food; to feast.

   • 1800, Frederick Schiller, The Piccolomini, or the First Part of Wallenstein, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: Longman & Rees, Act I, scene i, p. 2, Just in time to banquet The illustrious company assembled there.