顿
dùn
One sitting, gone through start to finish: 顿
The picture Stopping what you were doing, sitting down, going through the whole thing once, and getting up again. 顿 counts one sitting gone through from start to finish; 次 counts how many times something happened.
Where the picture shows up in 顿
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the meals that divide a day
我一天吃三顿饭。
wǒ yì tiān chī sān dùn fàn
I eat three meals a day.
A table laid and cleared three times over the course of one day.
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this sitting, and who pays
这顿饭我来付。
zhè dùn fàn wǒ lái fù
This meal is on me.
Reaching for the bill first at the end of a finished meal.
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a sitting someone stood you
昨天他请我吃了一顿好的。
zuótiān tā qǐng wǒ chī le yí dùn hǎo de
He treated me to a good meal yesterday.
Sitting down across from someone at a table loaded with dishes and picking up your chopsticks.
一顿好的 is common for 'a proper, generous meal'.
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one bout poured over you
他被老板骂了一顿。
tā bèi lǎobǎn mà le yí dùn
He got a real telling-off from the boss.
Called into the office, head down, taking the whole stream of words before walking out.
顿 is used for things that come all at once — a scolding, a beating.
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a sitting you skipped
中午那顿我没吃。
zhōngwǔ nà dùn wǒ méi chī
I skipped lunch.
Walking past the cleared lunch table and sitting back down to work.
All of it in one picture
The three meals you sit down to each day are 顿, the meal you offer to pay for is 顿, the spread someone treated you to is 顿. So is the roasting you took from the boss, and so is the lunch you skipped. 顿 counts not the amount of food but 'one sitting taken from beginning to end'. That is why a meal and a scolding are counted with the same word.