Bread Definition

brĕd
breaded, breading, breads
noun
breads
A food baked from a leavened, kneaded dough made with flour or meal, water, yeast, etc.
Webster's New World
A similar food, as matzo, that is not leavened and so remains flat when baked.
Webster's New World
Food in general, regarded as necessary for sustaining life.
American Heritage
Any baked food like bread but made with a batter.
Quick breads, corn bread.
Webster's New World
Something that nourishes; sustenance.
American Heritage
verb
breaded, breading, breads
To cover with bread crumbs before cooking.
Webster's New World
Wiktionary

(dialectal) To make broad; spread.

Wiktionary

To form in meshes; net.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
idiom
bread and butter
  • one's means of subsistence; livelihood
Webster's New World
break bread
  • to partake of food; eat
Webster's New World
cast one's bread upon the waters
  • to be generous or do good deeds without expecting something in return
Webster's New World
know which side one's bread is buttered on
  • to know what is to one's advantage and from what source it comes
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Bread

Noun

Singular:
bread
Plural:
breads

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Bread

Origin of Bread

  • From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“cooked food, leavened bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrew- ("to boil, seethe"; see brew). An alternative etymology derives bread from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brad (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), Danish brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”). Indoeuropean cognates include Albanian brydh (“I make crumbly, friable, soft”).

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English brede, from Old English brǣdu (“breadth, width, extent”), from Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ (“breadth”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”), Icelandic breidd (“breadth”).

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English breden, from Old English brǣdan (“to make broad, extend, spread, stretch out; be extended, rise, grow”), from Proto-Germanic *braidijaną (“to make broad, broaden”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English brēad bhreu- in Indo-European roots N., sense 3b, possibly from Cockney rhyming slang bread and honey

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan.

    From Wiktionary

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