Shew-bread

Full definition of shew-bread

Noun

1. Twelve loaves of bread placed on the alter in Jewish Temples and renewed periodically. See showbread.
• 1658: a long sided quadrate ... was the figure of the Ark of the Covenant, the table of the Shew-bread, and the stone wherein the names of the twelve Tribes were engraved — Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 177)

Alternative forms

• shew bread
• shewbread
• showbread