breadwinner [bred-win-er] EXAMPLES|WORD ORIGIN noun a person who earns a livelihood, especially one who also supports dependents. Liberaldictionary.com
Origin of breadwinner First recorded in 1810–20; bread + winner Related formsbread·win·ning, noun, adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 Examples from the Web for bread-winning Historical Examples of bread-winning
I must give first attention to bread-winning and like things.
Martin Luther
By what means were these things to be ensured to them if her skill in bread-winning should fail her?
Thomas Hardy
To those engaged in bread-winning employments these opportunities will be few.
George Herbert Palmer
He inherited a competence at the early age of four, and so was saved the mere struggle of bread-winning.
Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists
Various
He was obliged to make of his academic studies a side issue, bread-winning taking necessarily the first place with him.
Elisabeth Luther Cary
British Dictionary definitions for bread-winning breadwinner noun a person supporting a family with his or her earnings Derived Formsbreadwinning, noun, adjective Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for bread-winning breadwinner n.
also bread-winner, “one who supplies a living for others, especially a family,” 1821, from the noun bread (probably in a literal sense) + winner, from win (v.) in its sense of “struggle for, work at.” Attested slightly earlier (1818) in sense “skill or art by which one makes a living.” Not too far removed from the image at the root of lord (n.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper