Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

di·et 1       (dī'ĭt)  Pronunciation Key  n.   The usual food and drink of a person or animal. A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss. Something used, enjoyed, or provided regularly: subsisted on a diet of detective novels during his vacation. adj.   Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal: the diet industry. Having fewer calories. Sweetened with a noncaloric sugar substitute. Designed to reduce or suppress the appetite: diet pills; diet drugs. v.   di·et·ed, di·et·ing, di·ets v.   intr. To eat and drink according to a regulated system, especially so as to lose weight or control a medical condition. v.   tr. To regulate or prescribe food and drink for. [Middle English diete, from Old French, from Latin diaeta, way of living, diet, from Greek diaita, back-formation from diaitāsthai, to live one's life, middle voice of diaitān, to treat.] di'et·er n.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

di·et 2       (dī'ĭt)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A national or local legislative assembly in certain countries, such as Japan. A formal general assembly of the princes or estates of the Holy Roman Empire. [Middle English diete, day's journey, day for meeting, assembly, from Medieval Latin diēta, alteration (influenced by Latin diēs, day) of Latin diaeta, daily routine; see diet1.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
diet  (1)

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
diet  (2)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

diet
noun
1.	a prescribed selection of foods
2.	a legislative assembly in certain countries (e.g., Japan)
3.	the usual food and drink consumed by an organism (person or animal)
4.	the act of restricting your food intake (or your intake of particular foods)
verb
1.	follow a regimen or a diet, as for health reasons; "He has high blood pressure and must stick to a low-salt diet"
2.	eat sparingly, for health reasons or to lose weight

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

diet di·et (dī'ĭt)
n.

1. Food and drink in general.
2. A prescribed course of eating and drinking in which the amount and kind of food, as well as the times at which it is to be taken, are regulated for therapeutic purposes.
3. Reduction of caloric intake so as to lose weight.

v. di·et·ed, di·et·ing, di·ets
To eat and drink according to a regulated system, especially so as to lose weight or control a medical condition.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diet

Di"et\, n. [F. di[`e]te, L. diaeta, fr. Gr. ? manner of living.]

1. Course of living or nourishment; what is eaten and drunk habitually; food; victuals; fare. "No inconvenient diet." --Milton.

2. A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed.

To fast like one that takes diet. --Shak.

Diet kitchen, a kitchen in which diet is prepared for invalids; a charitable establishment that provides proper food for the sick poor.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diet

Di"et\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dieted; p. pr. & vb. n. Dieting.]

1. To cause to take food; to feed. [R.] --Shak.

2. To cause to eat and drink sparingly, or by prescribed rules; to regulate medicinally the food of.

She diets him with fasting every day. --Spenser.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diet

Di"et\, v. i. 1. To eat; to take one's meals. [Obs.]

Let him . . . diet in such places, where there is good company of the nation, where he traveleth. --Bacon.

2. To eat according to prescribed rules; to ear sparingly; as, the doctor says he must diet.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diet

Di"et\, n. [F. di[`e]te, LL. dieta, diaeta, an assembly, a day's journey; the same word as diet course of living, but with the sense changed by L. dies day: cf. G. tag day? and Reichstag.] A legislative or administrative assembly in Germany, Poland, and some other countries of Europe; a deliberative convention; a council; as, the Diet of Worms, held in 1521.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diet

Di"et\, n. Specifically: Any of various national or local assemblies; as, (a) Occasionally, the Reichstag of the German Empire, Reichsrath of the Austrian Empire, the federal legislature of Switzerland, etc. (b) The legislature of Denmark, Sweden, Japan, or Hungary. (c) The state assembly or any of various local assemblies in the states of the German Empire, as the legislature (Landtag) of the kingdom of Prussia, and the Diet of the Circle (Kreistag) in its local government. (d) The local legislature (Landtag) of an Austrian province. (e) The federative assembly of the old Germanic Confederation (1815 -- 66). (f) In the old German or Holy Roman Empire, the great formal assembly of counselors (the Imperial Diet or Reichstag) or a small, local, or informal assembly of a similar kind (the Court Diet, or Hoftag).

Note: The most celebrated Imperial Diets are the three following, all held under Charles V.:

Diet of Worms, 1521, the object of which was to check the Reformation and which condemned Luther as a heretic;

D. of Spires, or Speyer, 1529, which had the same object and issued an edict against the further dissemination of the new doctrines, against which edict Lutheran princes and deputies protested (hence Protestants):

D. of Augsburg, 1530, the object of which was the settlement of religious disputes, and at which the Augsburg Confession was presented but was denounced by the emperor, who put its adherents under the imperial ban.