See Also: bread(1)(dictionary)
Rye Bread(recipes)
bread(dictionary)
bread bin(dictionary)
bread(encyclopedia)
bread(2)(dictionary)
Bread(medicine)
Orange Bread(recipes)
Country Bread(recipes)
Courgette bread(recipes)

bread(1) (iou)



bread noun1.
[Old English bread = Old Frisian brad, Old Saxon, Middle & mod. Low German brod, Old High German brot (German Brot), Old Norse braue, from Germanic, of unkn. origin.]
A piece or morsel of food. Only in OE.
Flour moistened, kneaded, and baked, usu. with leaven. OE.
b. A loaf, a roll; a piece of bread. Now rare. LME.
c. Hist. Ship's biscuit. M17.
Essential food. ME.
K. Smith The field is clear, its straw / lined and ordered: it will be bread and bedding for safe cattle.
The means of subsistence; one's livelihood. E18.
C. Isherwood I wish to leave school and begin to learn something useful, that I can win my bread.
Money. slang. M20.
Phrases etc.: baker's bread: see BAKER. bee-bread: see BEE noun1. black bread: see BLACK adjective. bread and butter (a) slices of bread spread with butter; necessary food; (b) fig. one's livelihood, routine work to provide an income (quarrel with one's bread and butter: see QUARREL verb). bread-and-butter adjective (a) arch., of an age when bread and butter is staple fare, boyish or girlish; (b) commonplace, humdrum; (c) bread-and-butter letter, a guest's written thanks for hospitality; (d) bread-and-butter pudding, a dessert consisting of slices of bread and butter layered with dried fruit and sugar and baked with a mixture of milk and egg. bread and circuses: see CIRCUS 7. bread and milk pieces of bread in hot boiled milk. bread and scrape bread scantily buttered. bread and water: the plainest possible diet. bread and wine Christian Church the Eucharist. bread of idleness food not worked for. bread of trete: see TREAT noun1 1. break bread arch. take food, share a meal with someone. breaking of bread Christian Church the Eucharist. brown bread: see BROWN adjective. cast one's bread upon the waters: see WATER noun. daily bread a livelihood. eat the bread of be subjected to (affliction etc.). French bread: see FRENCH adjective. have one's bread buttered on both sides, want one's bread buttered on both sides have etc. a state of easy prosperity. know which side one's bread is buttered know where one's advantage lies. light bread: see LIGHT adjective1. loaf of bread, loaf o' bread: see LOAF noun1. quick bread: see QUICK adjective & adverb. sour bread: see SOUR adjective. sourdough bread: see SOURDOUGH 1b. sweet bread: see SWEET adjective & adverb. take the bread out of a person's mouth deprive a person of his or her living, esp. by competition. the best thing since sliced bread, the greatest thing since sliced bread: see SLICED 1b. want one's bread buttered on both sides: see have one's bread buttered on both sides above. wastel-bread: see WASTEL 1. white bread: see WHITE adjective.
Comb.: bread basket (a) a basket for bread; (b) slang the stomach; (c) (a region etc. which is) a producer of cereals for bread, a source of staple food; bread bin a container for loaves; breadboard a strong flat board for cutting bread on; colloq. a board on which an electric circuit etc. can be set out; bread-corn grain for making bread; breadcrumb noun & verb (a) noun a crumb of bread, esp. (in pl.) such crumbs used in cooking, e.g. as a coating for fried or grilled food; the soft inner part of bread; (b) verb trans. coat with breadcrumbs; breadfruit any of various tropical fruits with edible breadlike pulp; spec. that of the tree Artocarpus altilis of the Pacific islands; bread-kind W. Indies food like bread, e.g. yams, sweet potatoes; bread-knife a long knife, usu. with a serrated edge, for slicing bread; breadline (orig. US) a queue of poor people waiting to receive food; (fig.) the subsistence level; bread roll: see ROLL noun1; bread-root (the edible root of) a N. American leguminous plant, Psoralea esculenta; also called prairie turnip; bread sauce a milk sauce thickened with breadcrumbs; bread-stick a long thin roll of crisp bread; breadstuffs (a) grain flour; (b) articles of bread; bread-tree a tree yielding breadfruit or other breadlike food; bread wheat: see WHEAT noun 1; breadwinner the person whose work supports a family.
breaden adjective (arch.) made of bread L16.
breadless adjective without bread; without food: LME.
breadlike adjective resembling (that of) bread L17.