Definition

Noun: 1. Inexpensive, quickly prepared and served food: A type of cuisine characterized by food that is prepared in bulk in advance, kept hot or reheated to order, and served very quickly to customers, often at a counter or via a drive-through. It is typically associated with standardized menus, limited table service, and high-calorie items like hamburgers, fried chicken, french fries, and milkshakes.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • Many students eat fast food for lunch because it's convenient and cheap.
  • The documentary examined the health impacts of a diet high in fast food.
  • This street is lined with fast food restaurants.

Advanced Usage

• "Fast-food" as an attributive adjective: When used before a noun to describe a related concept.
  • He worked in the fast-food industry for five years.
  • The city has a distinctive fast-food culture.

Variants and Related Words

• Fast-food restaurant / Fast-food chain / Fast-food outlet (n): A specific establishment that sells fast food.
  • Major fast-food chains can be found all over the world.
• Junk food (n): A broader, more informal term for food with little nutritional value, which includes most fast food but also packaged snacks and sweets.

Synonyms

• Takeaway / Takeout (UK/US): Food that is cooked and sold to be eaten elsewhere. While all fast food can be takeaway, not all takeaway food is "fast food" in the standardized, chain-restaurant sense (e.g., takeaway from a traditional restaurant).
• Quick-service restaurant (QSR) (n): The formal industry term for a fast-food restaurant.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• A fast-food diet / To live on fast food: Describes the habit of regularly consuming fast food.
  • When he was in college, he lived on fast food.

Noun

1. inexpensive food (hamburgers or chicken or milkshakes) prepared and served quickly