Obs. Forms: 1 undernmæl, 4–5 vnder-, undermele (5 -mel), 6–7 vndermeale. [OE. undernmǽl: see UNDERN sb. and MEAL sb.2]
1. The time of undern; in later use esp. the early part of the afternoon. Also attrib.
Beowulf, 1428. ʓesawon … on næshleoðum nicras licgean, ða on undernmæl oft bewitiʓað sorhfulne sið.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxx. 319. Þa an undern-mæl spræcon hi betwux him þær-inne.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 875. Ther walketh now the lymytour hym self In vndermeles and in morwenynges.
c. 1400. Trevisa’s Higden, V. 373. Rosamunda in an undermele tyde [L. meridiano tempore] bonde … faste þe kynges swerd þat was on slepe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 511/1. Vndermele, postmeridies, postmesimbria.
b. An afternoon nap: a siesta. Also attrib.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 9044. To leyn hym sofftely On Fether beddys, mad ful wel, For to slepe hys vndermel.
1589. Nashe, Greene’s Menaphon, Pref. (Arb.), 15. The blacke pot; which makes our Poets vndermeale Muses so mutinous, as euerie stanzo they pen after dinner, is full poynted with a stabbe. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe, Ep. Ded. Hee hath dinde at a tauerne, and slept his vnder-meale at a bawdy house. Ibid., 11. The forty yeares vndermeale of the seauen sleepers.
2. An afternoon meal.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 511/1. Vndermele,… merarium.
1530. Palsgr., 285/2. Under mele, ressigner.
1586. Withals’ Dict. (1592), 57/2. Another greater supper or vndermeale was made redie for them.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, IV. ii. I thinke I am furnish’d for Catherne peares, for one vnder-meale.
