takeout

/ˌteɪkˈaʊt/

/ˈteɪkaʊt/

Other forms: takeouts

When you order food from a restaurant but eat it at home, you can call it takeout. After a long week, you and your family might get takeout and eat it while watching a movie.

You can use takeout as a noun or an adjective. All the takeout containers in your trash can may remind you that you haven't eaten homemade food in a while, but if there's an amazing Chinese restaurant in your neighborhood, it's hard to resist picking up nightly takeout. You can also use the terms carryout and takeaway, but takeout is the oldest of these, dating from around 1940.

Definitions of takeout

1. noun

   prepared food that is intended to be eaten off of the premises
   synonyms: takeaway, takeout food

   type of:

   convenience food

   any packaged dish or food that can be prepared quickly and easily as by thawing or heating
2. adjective

   of or involving food to be taken and eaten off the premises
   “takeout pizza”

   “the takeout counter”

   synonyms: take-away

   portable

   easily or conveniently transported
3. noun

   (bridge) a bid that asks your partner to bid another suit
   type of:

   bid, bidding

   (bridge) the number of tricks a bridge player is willing to contract to make