burger

burger — noun

1. a bread roll with a hot round piece of meat, fish, or vegetables inside, or the

1.nounA2
Definition

a bread roll with a hot round piece of meat, fish, or vegetables inside, or the round piece itself

Example

Ravi ordered a burger and fries at the beach cafe.

order a burger

For dinner, the twins shared two bean burgers with tomato sauce.

bean burgers = non-meat type

Common collocations
  • beef burger
  • bean burger
  • fish burger
  • burger and fries
  • order a burger
Synonyms
  • hamburger

    very close in meaning, but often suggests a beef burger more specifically

  • sandwich

    a much broader word; a burger is one kind of sandwich

  • patty

    only the flat round piece inside, not the whole food in a bun

Grammar Patterns

eat a burger

order a burger

a beef burger / veggie burger

Usage Note

Usually countable: one burger, two burgers. In everyday use, burger often means the whole food in a bun; with words like beef, fish, or veggie, it can also focus on the cooked round piece inside.

Common Mistakes

I bought burger for lunch.
I bought a burger for lunch.
Use a or an when you mean one burger.
We ordered three burger.
We ordered three burgers.
Use the plural form after a number greater than one.
Idioms

flip burgers

idiom

To work in a fast-food restaurant cooking food, often seen as a low-level job.

After college, Mia flipped burgers at a local diner for six months.

Brian flipped burgers every summer to save money for his tuition.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

For this sense, burger is the everyday word for a bun with a round patty, and people also use it for the patty itself in some contexts. Hamburger is very close, but it often sounds more specific to beef. Sandwich is much broader: a burger is one kind of sandwich, but many sandwiches do not contain a hot round patty. Patty names only the flat cooked piece, so it does not include the bun, sauce, or salad. Veggie burger is a subtype made without meat. Say We grabbed burgers after the game for the whole meal. Say The cook flipped the patties when you mean only the round pieces on the grill.

burger ↗hamburger ↗sandwich ↗patty ↗veggie burger

Common collocations

Nouns

  • beef burger
  • veggie burger
  • fish burger
  • burger bun

Phrases

  • eat a burger
  • order a burger
  • grill burgers
  • burger and fries

Etymology

GermanEnglish

Burger is a shortened form of hamburger. Hamburger first meant something linked with Hamburg in Germany, and later became the name of the meat dish or sandwich. English then began using burger by itself for similar foods, including ones made without beef.