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wine and dine

/waɪn ænd daɪn/
/waɪn ænd daɪn/
IPA guide

Other forms: wine and dining

Use the phrase wine and dine to mean "entertain with good food." If you wine and dine someone, you usually take him out to dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Historically, wining and dining someone was usually done with some ulterior motive — you might wine and dine a person you hoped to do business with, or a charming friend you wanted to ask on a date. The phrase's meaning is fairly obvious, since when you wine and dine, you provide someone with wine to drink and food on which to dine.

Definitions of wine and dine
  1. verb
    eat sumptuously
    “we wined and dined in Paris”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    banquet, feast, junket
    partake in a feast or banquet
  2. verb
    provide with food and drink, usually lavishly
    see moresee less
    type of:
    host
    be the host of or for
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