Wiktionary

bread

English

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Pronunciation

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Two loaves of bread (1).

Etymology 1

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From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“cooked food, leavened bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrew- (“to boil, seethe”) (see brew). Alternatively, 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 and Norwegian brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Albanian brydh (“I make crumbly, friable, soft”), Latin frustum (“crumb”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”).

Noun

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bread (countable and uncountable, plural breads)

  1. (uncountable)
    2. A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.
      We made sandwiches with the bread we bought from the bakery.
      Any leftover bread can be put into the pudding.
      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
        Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
    3. Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
      Synonym: staff of life
  2. (countable) Any variety of bread.
  3. (slang, US or Cockney) Money.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:money
    • 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published 1963 January, pages 3–4:
      Maybe somebody would see him and recognize him, maybe one of the guys would lay enough bread on him for a meal or at least subway fare.
    • 1967, “San Franciscan Nights”, in Winds of Change, performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals:
      […] save up all your bread, and fly Trans-Love Airways to San Francisco, USA.
    • 1973, Billy Joel (lyrics and music), “Piano Man”, Billy Joel (music), performed by Billy Joel:
      And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar / And say, "Man, what are you doing here?"
    • 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎[1], performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
      Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.
Usage notes
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Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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Verb

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bread (third-person singular simple present breads, present participle breading, simple past and past participle breaded)

  1. (transitive) To coat with breadcrumbs.
    breaded fish
Derived terms
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Translations
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See also

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Etymology 2

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From Middle English brede (“breadth, width, extent”), 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”).

Noun

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bread (plural breads)

  1. (obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Breadth.
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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

Verb

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bread (third-person singular simple present breads, present participle breading, simple past and past participle breaded)

  1. (transitive, dialectal) To make broad; spread.[1]

References

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  1. ^ 1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words Not Generally Used

Etymology 4

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Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan (“to braid”).

Alternative forms

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Verb

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bread (third-person singular simple present breads, present participle breading, simple past and past participle breaded)

  1. (transitive) To form in meshes; net.

Noun

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bread (plural breads)

  1. A piece of embroidery; a braid.

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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bread

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of bred (“bread”)

Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą, whence also Old Frisian brād (West Frisian brea), Old Saxon brōd (German Low German Broot, Brot), Dutch brood, Old High German brōt (German Brot), Old Norse brauð and Icelandic brauð (Swedish bröd).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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brēad n

  1. bit, piece, morsel, crumb
  2. bread (foodstuff)

Declension

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Declension of brēad
Case Singular Plural
nominative brēad brēadru
accusative brēad brēadru
genitive brēades brēada
dative brēade brēadum

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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Spanish

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Verb

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bread

  1. second-person plural imperative of brear
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