the main meal of the day served in the evening or at midday; "dinner will be at 8"; "on Sundays they had a large dinner when they returned from church"
In the very early 19th century (according to D Pool, 1993: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, Simon & Schuster), the meals were generally breakfast, dinner (3 or 4 in the afternoon), and supper, with no formal afternoon tea I don't know whether or how this might have differed for passengers aboard ship (That also seems to be quite a long time between breakfast and lunch to go without food--enlighten me, anyone?)
Dinner is the main meal of the day, usually served in the early part of the evening. She invited us to her house for dinner Would you like to stay and have dinner? see also TV dinner