[General] the or zero the?

[maoyueh]

Without a context, which of the following sentences is correct and natural? Or are both possible? Maybe if I use the word 'meal' , I must keep 'the'. If I use the word "dinner", both 'through the dinner' and 'through dinner' are possible. I hope this is not a naive question. Thank you so much.

1. He had me laughing all through the dinner / meal.
2. He had me laughing all through dinner / meal.

 

[GoesStation]

If you name the meal, you omit the article:

He had me laughing all through breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Otherwise, you need the article.

 

[tedmc]

There should not be space next to the slash(/).

 

[teechar]

He had me laughing all through the dinner/lunch/breakfast.
That's certainly possible. Here you're talking about a special/celebratory occasion, e.g., a company's Christmas party dinner at some restaurant.