bread

English
Two loaves of bread (1).

Wikibooks

Pronunciation
  • (General Australian) enPR: brĕd, IPA(key): /bɹɛd/ or IPA(key): /bɹeːd/
  • (UK, US) enPR: brĕd, IPA(key): /bɹɛd/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛd
  • Homophone: bred

Etymology 1

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 and Norwegian brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Albanian brydh (“I make crumbly, friable, soft”), Latin frustum (“crumb”).

Noun

bread (countable and uncountable, plural breads)

  1. (uncountable) A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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.
    • 1981, Shel Silverstein, “How Many, How Much”, A Light in the Attic, Harper & Row:
      How many slices in a[sic] bread? / Depends how thin you cut it.
  2. (countable) Any variety of bread.
  3. (slang, US) Money.
    • 2005, Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, and Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), “Stay Fly”, in Most Known Unknown‎, Sony BMG, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG):
      Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.
  4. Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
    • Bible, Matthew vi. 11
      Give us this day our daily bread.
Usage notes
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
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Translations to be checked

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) to coat with breadcrumbs
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

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

bread (plural breads)

  1. (obsolete or Britain dialectal, Scotland) Breadth.
Derived terms

Etymology 3

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

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

  1. (transitive, dialectal) To make broad; spread.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ray to this entry?)

Etymology 4

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

Alternative forms

Verb

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

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

Noun

bread (plural breads)

  1. A piece of embroidery; a braid.

Anagrams

Old English

Alternative forms
  • brēod

Etymology

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

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bræːɑ̯d/

Noun

brēad n (nominative plural brēadru)

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

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

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

Spanish

Verb

bread

  1. (Spain) Informal second-person plural (vosotros or vosotras) affirmative imperative form of brear.
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