Bread

Pronunciation

• Australia enPR: brÄ•d, IPA: /bɹɛd/ or IPA: /breːd/
• UK enPR: brÄ•d, IPA: /bɹɛd/
• Rhymes: -É›d
• Homophones: bred

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").

Full definition of bread

Noun

1. (uncountable) A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, 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.
2. (countable) Any variety of bread.
3. (slang) Money.
4. Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
• Bible, Matthew vi. 11Give us this day our daily bread.

Synonyms

• (slang: money) dough, folding stuff, lolly, spondulicks, wonga

Usage notes

loaf, slice, piece, hunk are some of the words used to count bread.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) to coat with breadcrumbs

Derived terms

• breaded
• breading

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").

Noun

1. (obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Breadth.

Derived terms

• waybread

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").

Verb

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

Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan ("").

Alternative forms

• breathe, brede

Verb

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

Noun

1. A piece of embroidery; a braid.

Anagrams

• ardeb, bared, beard, Beard, Breda, debar, Debar, Debra