The seven sleepers and others required no food till they woke from
their long sleep. The same may be said of all hibernating animals.
To dine with Democritos.
To be cheated out of one's dinner. Democritos was the derider or
philosopher who laughed at men's folly.
To dine with Sir Thomas Gresham.
To go without one's dinner; to be dinnerless; Sir Thomas Gresham
founded the Royal Exchange which was a favourite lounge for those who
could not afford to provide themselves with a dinner.
To dine with Duke Humphrey.
(See Humphrey.) To dine with Mahomet. To die and dine in
paradise. To dine with the cross-legged knights. (See next column Dinnerless.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
