What's the American English equivalent to the British "takeaway" when referring to prepared meals that are intended to be eaten elsewhere?
Learn English – American equivalent of British “takeaway”
american-englishword-request
Related Solutions
Let me elaborate on the comments a bit.
If you were to show me this picture and quickly ask me what that is called, certainly the first thing I would say would be, "package of spaghetti."
There are other options, as you'll see from the numerous words used in the comments, but they do have slightly different connotations.
Packet is the next closest possible option (for the image you showed). In my opinion, however, when I think of a packet of food, I think of a small package of something small or granular. For example, a packet of sugar:
You could also have a box of spaghetti, but not with the image that you gave. This would be a box of spaghetti:
Container can really be applied to almost anything, but it's a broader term. I don't think that'd be the first word used here.
Pack is also possible, but I find myself using that more for processed things. In other words, I would say "a pack of pencils" or "a pack of cigarettes," but NOT "a pack of flour."
In all honesty, this really goes case by case, depending on the packaging, the item in the packaging, and sometimes even the part of the country that you're in.
I can give you a British English definition as I own such vehicles...
A caravan is a trailer towed by a car:
A camper van (or campervan) is a van of ~1 ton converted for sleeping & cooking. These are typically VW Transporters or Mazda Bongos. There are still huge numbers of lovingly preserved VW campervans on the roads (I have a classic T2 and a T5):
A Motorhome is a purpose built vehicle, larger than a campervan. These are coachbuilt onto a commercial chassis. The chassis are usually Peugeot or Fiat. They come in varying sizes but are rarely more than 3tons:
You will find people "in the scene" who get very picky about how their vehicles are described. Some people will get upset if you refer to their motorhome as a camper for example.
We British do recognise the term RV as being an American equivalent. However, in Britain, when applied to British vehicles, the term is usually only used for the very large:
Best Answer
As far as I know, that would be called takeout (sometimes referred to as takeout food). At least, that's what I've most commonly heard my American and Canadian friends say when talking about a prepared meal that you take home with you or someplace else instead of eating it where you bought it. I guess the reason it's called takeout is because you literally take it out of the building.
Examples:
Although that would probably work, a more common way to say it would be make it to-go:
I think you use takeout more in other contexts like I got takeout for dinner last night. Not when ordering.
It depends on the type of restaurant too. For example, if you go to a fast-food restaurant, you would ask for to-go. If you go to a casual dining restaurant, you might ask for takeout. At a very fancy restaurant, you only eat there and taking it home isn't an option. Pizza is a special case though. If you go to a pizza place, you order carry-out.