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gingerbread
(jin′jər bred′)
noun
- a cake flavored with ginger and molasses
- a kind of cookie cut from a rolled-out dough flavored with ginger and molasses
- showy ornamentation, as gaudy or fancy carvings on furniture, gables, etc.
Origin: ME ginge bred, altered (after bred, bread) < gingebras, preserved ginger, ginger pudding < OFr gingembraz < gingibre < ML gingiber, ginger
adjective
cheap and showy; gaudy
also gingerbready
See gingerbread in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- a. A dark molasses cake flavored with ginger.b. A soft molasses and ginger cookie cut in various shapes, sometimes elaborately decorated.
- a. Elaborate ornamentation.b. Superfluous or tasteless embellishment, especially in architecture.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English gingebred, a stiff pudding, preserved ginger
Origin: , alteration (influenced by bred, bread, bread)
Origin: of Old French gingembrat
Origin: , from Medieval Latin *gingibrātum
Origin: , from gingiber, ginger; see ginger
.Related Forms:
- ginˈger·breadˌ adjective
- ginˈger·breadˌy adjective
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