bread

[bred] /brɛd/

noun

a kind of food made of flour or meal that has been mixed with milk or water, made into a dough or batter, with or without yeast or other leavening agent, and baked.

food or sustenance; livelihood:

to earn one's bread.

Slang. money.

Ecclesiastical. the wafer or bread used in a Eucharistic service.

verb (used with object)

Cookery. to cover with breadcrumbs or meal.

Idioms

break bread,

to eat a meal, especially in companionable association with others.
to distribute or participate in Communion.

cast one's bread upon the waters, to act generously or charitably with no thought of personal gain.

know which side one's bread is buttered on, to be aware of those things that are to one's own advantage.

take the bread out of someone's mouth, to deprive someone of livelihood.

Origin

before 950; 1950-55 for def 3; Middle English breed, Old English brēad fragment, morsel, bread; cognate with German Brot

Related forms

breadless, adjective

breadlessness, noun

unbreaded, adjective

Can be confused

bread, bred.

Examples from the web for bread

In fact without water, the grain needed to make bread or any other food item would never even get harvested.
They brought their own food: some vegetables, bread, and a jar of sour cream.
Self-expression through writing was an almost organic need of his, as if his genius received its daily bread from his pen.
To her delight, during dinner parties he playfully transformed the bread and even the food into miniature sculptures.
Gone are the days when buying your daily bread simply meant tossing a cotton- soft white loaf into a grocery cart.
Low-fat milk and high-fiber bread availability in food stores in urban and rural communities.
The government has blamed the rise in the cost of bread on soaring global wheat prices.
Shake off excess liquid and place bread slices in frying pan.
At the end she shares her recipe for a heritage bread.
Since the beginning of time, canned cranberry sauce and brown bread have been bitter rivals.

British Dictionary definitions for bread

bread

/brɛd/

noun

a food made from a dough of flour or meal mixed with water or milk, usually raised with yeast or baking powder and then baked

necessary food; nourishment: give us our daily bread

a slang word for money

(Christianity) a small loaf, piece of bread, or wafer of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist

bread and circuses, something offered as a means of distracting attention from a problem or grievance

break bread, See break (sense 46)

cast one's bread upon the waters, to do good without expectation of advantage or return

to know which side one's bread is buttered, to know what to do in order to keep one's advantages

take the bread out of someone's mouth, to deprive someone of a livelihood

verb

10.

(transitive) to cover with breadcrumbs before cooking: breaded veal

Word Origin

Old English brēad; related to Old Norse braud, Old Frisian brād, Old High German brōt

Word Origin and History for bread

Old English bread "bit, crumb, morsel; bread," cognate with Old Norse brauð, Danish brød, Old Frisian brad, Middle Dutch brot, Dutch brood, German Brot. According to one theory [Watkins, etc.] from Proto-Germanic *brautham, which would be from the root of brew (v.) and refer to the leavening.

But OED argues at some length for the basic sense being not "cooked food" but "piece of food," and the Old English word deriving from a Proto-Germanic *braudsmon- "fragments, bits" (cf. Old High German brosma "crumb," Old English breotan "to break in pieces") and being related to the root of break (v.). It cites Slovenian kruh "bread," literally "a piece."

Either way, by c.1200 it had replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf (see loaf (n.)). Slang meaning "money" dates from 1940s, but cf. breadwinner. Bread-and-butter in the figurative sense of "basic needs" is from 1732. Bread and circuses (1914) is from Latin, in reference to food and entertainment provided by governments to keep the populace happy. "Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses" [Juvenal, Sat. x.80].

"to dress with bread crumbs," 1727, from bread (n.). Related: Breaded; breading.

Slang definitions & phrases for bread

bread

noun

Money; dough

[1940s+, but esp cool talk & 1960s+ counterculture; probably fr dough; perhaps related to earlier gingerbread, ''money'']

bread in the Bible

among the Jews was generally made of wheat (Ex. 29:2; Judg. 6:19), though also sometimes of other grains (Gen. 14:18; Judg. 7:13). Parched grain was sometimes used for food without any other preparation (Ruth 2:14). Bread was prepared by kneading in wooden bowls or "kneading troughs" (Gen. 18:6; Ex. 12:34; Jer. 7:18). The dough was mixed with leaven and made into thin cakes, round or oval, and then baked. The bread eaten at the Passover was always unleavened (Ex. 12:15-20; Deut. 16:3). In the towns there were public ovens, which were much made use of for baking bread; there were also bakers by trade (Hos. 7:4; Jer. 37:21). Their ovens were not unlike those of modern times. But sometimes the bread was baked by being placed on the ground that had been heated by a fire, and by covering it with the embers (1 Kings 19:6). This was probably the mode in which Sarah prepared bread on the occasion referred to in Gen. 18:6. In Lev. 2 there is an account of the different kinds of bread and cakes used by the Jews. (See BAKE.) The shew-bread (q.v.) consisted of twelve loaves of unleavened bread prepared and presented hot on the golden table every Sabbath. They were square or oblong, and represented the twelve tribes of Israel. The old loaves were removed every Sabbath, and were to be eaten only by the priests in the court of the sanctuary (Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:8; 1 Sam. 21:1-6; Matt. 12:4). The word bread is used figuratively in such expressions as "bread of sorrows" (Ps. 127:2), "bread of tears" (80:5), i.e., sorrow and tears are like one's daily bread, they form so great a part in life. The bread of "wickedness" (Prov. 4:17) and "of deceit" (20:17) denote in like manner that wickedness and deceit are a part of the daily life.

Idioms and Phrases with bread

bread

In addition to the idioms beginning with bread

bread and butter

also see: