Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
bread [bred] EXAMPLES|WORD ORIGIN|IDIOMS 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. Liberaldictionary.com
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 of bread before 950; 1950–55 for def 3; Middle English breed, Old English brēad fragment, morsel, bread; cognate with German Brot Related formsbread·less, adjectivebread·less·ness, nounun·bread·ed, adjectiveCan be confusedbread bred Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 Examples from the Web for breading Historical Examples of breading
The process of breading and frying is accomplished in this way.
A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery
Juliet Corson
Must you prepare meat for breading half an hour before cooking, or when?
Ethel Hueston
A Man of humble birth and no breading, who held a high political office, was passing through a forest, when he met a Monkey.
Ambrose Bierce
British Dictionary definitions for breading bread 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; nourishmentgive 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 (def. 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 (tr) to cover with breadcrumbs before cookingbreaded veal Word Origin for bread Old English brēad; related to Old Norse braud, Old Frisian brād, Old High German brōt 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 breading bread n.
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].
bread v.
“to dress with bread crumbs,” 1727, from bread (n.). Related: Breaded; breading.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Idioms and Phrases with breading bread
In addition to the idioms beginning with bread
also see:
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
