Forms: 1 bréad, 2–3 bread, (2 brad), 2–3 bræd, 2–7 bred, (3–5 bredd), 3–6 brede, (4 bryad, bryead), 4–6 breed(e, 5–7 breade, 6– bread, 5– Sc. breid, (6–7 bredde, 7 braid, 9 dial. brade). [OE. bréad, pl. bréadru: repr. WGer. *braud, and corresp. to OFris. brâd, OS. brôd (MDu. broot-de, Du. brood, LG. brôd, brood), OHG., MHG. brôt (Ger. brod, brot); ON. brauð (Sw., Da. bröd):—OTeut. *braudoz-, a neuter -os stem, not preserved in Gothic. The original Teutonic name for bread survives in the modern LOAF (OE. hláf, OHG. hleib, ON. hleifr, Goth. hlaifs, hlaibs, OTeut. *hlaibo-z) formerly in all the langs. in the sense of ‘bread’ and ‘loaf.’ Braudoz-, brôd, bréad, appears to have originally meant ‘piece, bit, fragment, L. frustum’: but already in OS. and OHG. it had the acquired sense of ‘bread’; ‘OHG. shows no clear distinction of meaning between brôt and hleib’ (Sievers). In OE. bréad is rare: the later Blickling Glosses have the pl. bréadru, ‘frusta’ (i.e., ‘pieces, bits’). The other examples are all Northumbrian, in the Lindisfarne (& Rushw.) gloss; viz. John xiii. 27, 30 translating buccella, the ‘mouthful’ given to Judas, for which the Ags. Gospels have bitan, Wyclif morsel, Rhemish morsel. In verse 26 where the Vulgate twice renders the same Gr. word (ψωμίον bit, piece) by ‘panem,’ later versions ‘bread,’ the Ags. has hláf, Lindisf. laf, which seems to show that bréad was not yet identified with panis. But in John vi. 23, bréad actually represents panem of the Vulgate (= ἄρτον), and hláf of the Ags. version: where however broken bread is in question. Before 1200 bread had quite displaced hláf as the name of the substance, leaving to the latter the sense ‘loaf’ which it has since retained. It thus appears that a word originally meaning ‘piece, bit, frustum,’ has passed through the senses of ‘piece of bread,’ ‘broken bread,’ into that of ‘bread’ as a substance; while at the same time the original word for ‘bread, loaf, panis’ has been restricted to the undivided article as shaped and baked, the ‘loaf.’ The Lowland Scotch and north. dial. use of piece illustrates anew the first step in this transition, for it is the regular word for a piece of bread, as in ‘give the bairn a piece,’ ‘a beggar asking a piece,’ a ‘piece-poke,’ a ‘gie’s-a-piece’ i.e., a beggar.
So also in Slovenish, ‘kruh, “bread” is literally “a piece, something broken off” (Miklosich, Etym. Wbch. Slav. Spr., 143).
With brôd, bréad, Prof. Sievers connects the Ger. brosame crumb, in OHG. brôsma, OS. brôsmo:—OTeut. braudsmon-, the sense of which confirms the original meaning of *braudoz-, and points to some root having the sense of ‘break.’ OE. bréotan does not answer phonetically. (The preceding facts are, of course, quite inconsistent with the conjecture that bread is a deriv. of the verb-root bru to BREW.)]
† 1. (Only in OE.) Bit, piece, morsel (of food). See above in Etymology.
2. A well-known article of food prepared by moistening, kneading, and baking meal or flour, generally with the addition of yeast or leaven.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John vi. 23. Neh ðær stoue ðær ʓeeton þæt bread [Ags. Gosp. þone hlaf].
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 233. Hi hadden brad and win and vii sandon.
c. 1200. Moral Ode, 191, in Trin. Coll. Hom., 225. We ȝieueð … a steche of ure breade.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1590. Þerrflinng bræd iss clene bræd.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15233. Takes and etes o þis bred, For fless þan es it min.
1340. Ayenb., 107. A zop of hot bryead.
c. 1383. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 443. Þis sacrid ooste is verrey Goddis body and verrey breede.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, V. xiii. (1483), 104. This breed and this wyn the hyhe kyng blessith with his hand.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1004. Be hym y sawe in forme of bredd, When the preest can synge.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 30. Better is halfe a lofe than no bread.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLVIII. 1237. To chew his bare bread.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 151. They make not breid agreand to the money.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., 236. Bread and Cheese be the two targets against death.
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, II. (1743), 94. I do not care how white my Bread is.
1799. trans. H. Meister’s Lett., 228. You write bread, and you pronounce it bred.
1843. Hood, The Shirt, v. O God! that bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap!
b. The plural has been used as a literalism of translation (obs.); also in sense of ‘kinds of bread’; and colloq. of individual portions or helpings of bread.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, Pref. 4. They must knowe the operacyon of all maner of breades, of drinkes, and of meates.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 140. Three sundry breades are mentioned by Christe.
1609. Bible (Douay), Ps. xl. 10. The man also … who did eate my breades. Ibid., Prov. xii. 11. He that tilleth his land, shall be filled with breads.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., 3/2. By two o’clock we were all seated, nibbling at our breads in a famished way.
c. To break bread: a. to break it for one’s own mouthfuls; hence to eat or partake of bread or food; b. (from N.T.) to break it for distribution to others, to dispense bread, or fig. the bread of life; also to break the sacramental bread in the Communion of the Lord’s Supper, to administer or join in the Communion.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12559. Noþer durst þai … ne brek þair brede, ne tast þair mes, Till he war cummen til þair des.
1382. Wyclif, Lam. iv. 4. The litil childer askeden bred, and ther was not that shulde breke to them. Ibid., Acts xx. 7. Whanne we comen for to breke breed, Poul disputide with hem. Ibid., Mark xiv. 22. Jhesus took bred, and blessinge brak, and ȝaf to hem.
c. 1430. Syr Gener., 3067. Elles brede mot I neuer breke.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 74. To breeke the bread of life to their charges.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iv. 161. An honest maid as euer broke bread. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. ii. 48. The fellow that sits next him, now parts bread with him.
1813. Byron, Br. Abydos, II. xvi. Not all who break his bread are true.
1878. H. Smart, Play or Pay, i. The sole stranger that has broken bread with the —th Hussars this evening.
d. Often phraseologically combined with the name of some other article eaten or drunk with it, as bread and milk, meat, salt, water: bread and cheese, fig. for plain fare, needful food, victuals, living; also, a child’s name for the young leaves of the Hawthorn, the Wood-Sorrel or ‘Cuckoo-bread,’ and one or two other plants; bread and milk, bread saturated with boiling milk; also, the Cuckoo-flower (Cardamine pratensis); † bread and salt, an old form of oath, whence to take bread and salt, to swear; bread and wine, the ‘elements’ in the Communion. Also BREAD AND BUTTER.
1589. in H. Hall, Soc. in Eliz. Age (1886), 219. *Bread and cheese, vid.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 140. I loue not the humour of bread and cheese.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Lousiad, III. Wks. 1812, I. 247. Morpheus … gave To brainless Authors, bread and cheese, and fame.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, iii. Cut with their bread-and-cheese knives.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. /332. He taught School … to gain *bread and drink.
1785. R. Bromfield in Med. Commun., II. 24. A *bread and milk poultice.
a. 1869. Conington, Misc. Writ. (1872), I. 247. To our taste it savours too much of the bread and milk of the nursery.
1575. J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, V. ii. No other wight, save she, by *bred and salt.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. i. 9.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., V. ii. He took bread and salt … that he would never open his lips.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 18. The propir mater … of this haly sacrament, quhilk is *breid and wyne.
1886. Morley, Crit. Misc., I. 298. He was willing to continue the [Communion] service … on condition that he should not himself partake of the bread and wine.
e. With qualifying words, as black bread, a coarser dark kind made of some inferior grain; native bread, an underground fungus (Mylitta australis) eaten by Australian aborigines; also BROWN-BREAD, q.v. For ammunition bread, barley-bread, etc., see first element of comb.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 657. The coarser kinds of bread, such as the … *black bread of Germany.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. cxxvii. 2. Feeding full hardly with *browne bread.
1626. Markham, Countrey Farm, V. xx. 578. Of the meale wholly together … is made *houshold bread. And when the greatest of the branne is taken away, then there is usually made thereof citizens bread.
1866. Treas. Bot., II. 769/1. The *Native Bread of Australia … when dry becomes extremely hard and horny.
1884. Times, 14 Aug., 3/2. A fungoid plant, the Tasmanian native bread…. The specimen weighed when fresh 37lb.
f. In proverbial and other expressions, as † Bread of wheat, † God’s bread, ’od’s bread: i.e., the sacramental bread: an obs. form of adjuration or oath. † To bake any one’s bread: see BAKE v. 6. To know on which side one’s bread is buttered: to have the sense to know where one’s interest lies. To take the bread out of one’s mouth: to take away his livelihood, to take from a person what he is on the very point of enjoying. Bread buttered on both sides: great good fortune, lucky circumstances.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 2986. Wel sone hur bred was y-bake; hure lif-dawes wern ago.
a. 1500. Songs & Carols 15th C. (1856), 4. The eldest dowter swor, be bred of qwete.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 71. I know on which syde my bread is buttred.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. v. 177. Gods bread, it makes me mad.
1681. Roxb. Ballads (1886), VI. 173. ’Ods Bread, she’s jealous I trow!
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xvi. You little Prigs, will you offer to take the Bread out of my Mouth?
1837. Lockhart, Scott (1839), I. 206, note. Wherever Walter goes he is pretty sure to find his bread buttered on both sides.
1845. J. W. Croker, in Papers (1884), III. xxiv. 47. Lord Johnny dashed forward to take the bread out of his [Peel’s] mouth.
† 3. (With pl.) A loaf, a roll; also, a broken piece, or fragment, of bread. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1405. Burnes berande þe bredes vpon brode skeles.
c. 1450. Henryson, Tale of Dog, 38. Ane certane breid, worth five schillings or mair.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 192. The xii baskettes of breedes yt remayned … in ye great myracle of our lorde.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Kings xix. 6. At his heade there was a bred [Wyclif loaf] baken on the coles.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 134. Gif ane man is taken … with ane bread, the price of ane halfe pennie.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., II. 32. Scarce a penny bread a day to support their lives.
4. Taken as a type of ordinary food or victual. (Perhaps from the Lord’s Prayer.) Bread of idleness: food not worked for; so similar phrases, as Bread of affliction, etc. † Full of bread: full-fed.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 63. Gif us to dei ure deies bred.
1340. Ayenb., 110. Vayre uader oure bryad of eche daye yef ous to day.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxxiii. 16. Bred to hym is ȝoue, his watris ben feithful. Ibid. (1388), Deut. xvi. 3. Thou schalt ete breed of affliccioun.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13549. Me bus, as a beggar, my bred for to thigge.
1535. Coverdale, Ex. xxiii. 25. So shal he blesse thy bred & thy water [Wyclif, looues, and watris].
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. i. 21. Eating the bitter bread of banishment.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 80. He tooke my Father grossely, full of bread.
1611. Bible, Prov. xxxi. 27. She … eateth not the bread of idleness [Wyclif, idil bred; Coverdale bred with ydilnes]. Ibid., Ezek. xvi. 49. Pride, fulnesse of bread, and aboundance of idlenesse was in her.
a. 1700. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., Pythag. Philos., 132. If men … chaw with bloody teeth the breathing bread.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xi. You cannot eat the bread of idleness on board of a man-of-war.
1842. Tennyson, Lady Clare, 26. I speak the truth, as I live by bread!
b. fig.
c. 1380. Wyclif, John vi. 35. I am breed of lyf.
1542–60. Becon, Potat. for Lent, Wks. (1843), 105. Touch not the thievish breads of perverse doctrine.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., i. § 1. 21. The holy Sacrament … the bread of elect souls.
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, X. iv. 358. The daily bread of literature and art.
5. Livelihood, means of subsistence.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, i. I was under no necessity of seeking my bread.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Indies, II. xxxv. 31. Poor miserable Fishers, who get their Bread out of the Water, to keep them from starving.
1777. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 170. The bread of a family depends on that man’s paralytic hand.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. 205. You … make your bread by your … pen.
1822. Byron, Vis. Judgm., xcvi. He meant no harm in scribbling … ’twas … his bread.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 142. Many officers … arbitrarily deprived of their commissions and of their bread.
6. Extended to various preparations of the composition or nature of bread. † a. Pie-crust; pastry. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4487. A lepe … Wit bred þat i bar on mi heued.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxvii. Briddes bacun in bred.
c. 1475[?]. Sqr. lowe Degre, 319. Wyth byrdes in brede y bake.
† b. Sea-biscuit. Obs.
1651. Proc. Parliament, No. 84. 1289. We have taken … 2 casks of Bread, and one barrel of Pease in one Vessel.
1746. in W. Thompson, R. N. Advoc. (1757), 18. The Bread … is all good, but … it has been … long aboard.
1793. Pitt, in G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 128. I rather imagine he uses the term bread, as synonymous with biscuit.
c. Other preparations of corn or flour. U.S.
1863. Life in South, II. 237. An abundant supply of cold chicken, ham, and ‘breads,’ as all the variety of corn cakes, waffles, hot rolls, and hominy are called.
7. Short for BEE-BREAD. (In 17th c. pollen.)
1676. Grew, Anat. Flowers, v. § 1. That Body which Bees gather and carry upon their Thighs, and is commonly called their Bread…. The Bread is a Kind of Powder; yet somewhat moist.
II. Attrib. and Comb.
8. simple attrib. Of bread, esp. as a material; about or for bread, as bread riots.
1783. S. Chapman, in Med. Commun., I. 287. A bit of … light bread pudding.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., 170/1. The bread poultice, used as emollient in ordinary cases.
1883. Harriet Prescott Spofford, in Harper’s Mag., March, 578/1. Should the crusts be given to the poor, or should money be given to the poor and the crusts saved for a bread pudding?
9. General comb.: a. attributive, as bread-bag, -bin, -binge, -cart, -chest, -crust, -food, -hutch (c. 1440), -knife, -pan, -paste, -rack, -rasp, -roll, -sauce, -tax, -tray, -wagon, -weevil; b. objective or obj. gen., as bread-baker, -baking, -chipper, -chopper, -cutter, -earner, -earning, -grater, -grate (1587), -maker, -making, -seller, -taking, -taxing, -wanting; c. parasynthetic, as bread-faced.
1864. Daily Tel., 4 Oct., 5/5. A *‘bread-bag knot’ … is the old boatswain’s trap to catch a thief at his biscuit-store.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6195/5. Henry Browning … *Bread-Baker.
1757. W. Thompson, R. N. Advoc., 21. Being on a Subject of *Bread baking.
1593. Wills & Inv. N. C., II. (1860), 227. Two jackes, one *bread-binge.
1638. Penkethman, Artach., K b. The *Bread-Carts … comming from Stratford towards London, were met at the Miles end.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., II. 775. Some *bread-chipper or greasy cooke.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 342. Call me Pantler, and Bread-chopper.
1587. Wills & Inv. N. C., II. (1860), 149. Item, ij minsinge knives, and a *breadgrate of tynn.
1624. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 55. 2 frying pannes, 4 peales, and a *bread grater.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 48. *Brede-huche, turrundula.
1861. Mrs. Beeton, Bk. Househ. Managem., 991. Taking care … that butter-knife and *bread-knife are in their places.
1857. Eliza Acton, Eng. Bread-bk., II. iv. 178. A skilful *bread-maker would soon find it easy to combine various cheap ingredients, and prepare with them very good bread. Ibid., I. iii. 29. A thorough reform in the old methods of ‘panification,’ or *bread-making. Ibid., II. iv. 154, note. It is well to warm the *bread-pan or tub, and the flour also. Ibid., II. 98. A substance similar to *bread-paste or dough.
1884. Manch. Exam., 4 Dec., 5/3. A decision of great importance to bakers and *breadsellers.
1640. R. Carew, in Doidge’s West. Count. Ann. (1882), 211. None departed … till after the *breade taking.
1863. De Morgan, in Athenæum, 10 Oct., 467. The abolition of the *bread-tax.
1841. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), VI. 52. Old saws impressed on him by a *bread-taxing clergy.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3091/3. 200 of the Enemies Horse … were come … to intercept our *Bread-Wagons. Ibid. (1710), No. 4714/2. To halt … for … our Baggage and the Bread-Waggons.
10. Special comb.: bread-artist, a casual term applied to one who prosecutes an art or profession simply to gain a living; bread-barge (Naut.), an oval tub in which bread is placed for mess; † bread-bearer, an officer of the royal household; bread-berry, bread steeped in hot water and seasoned or sweetened, pap (cf. ALEBERRY); † bread-brake, a kneading trough or machine; bread-controller = bread-steward; bread-dust, powdered bread or biscuit; bread-flake (dial. brade-fleigh), a wooden frame or rack upon which oat-cakes are placed to dry and harden; † bread-god, contemptuous term for the consecrated host; † bread-lepe, a bread-basket; bread-meal, (a.) meal for household or brown bread (dial.); (b.) sometimes used for rock-meal (Ger. berg-mehl); bread-nut, the seed of the Brosimum alicastrum; bread-powder, baking-powder; bread-purveyor = bread-steward; bread-room, a room for keeping bread, esp. Naut. ‘a place parted off below the lower deck, close abaft, for keeping the bread’; also slang. = BREADBASKET 2; bread-root, the name of one or two plants producing edible tubers or bulbs, spec. a species of Psoralea (P. esculenta), and Camassia esculenta or Quamash; also the root itself; bread-steward (see quot.); bread-science, -study, a science or study pursued as a means of gaining a livelihood; † bread-skep = bread-lepe; bread-trade, the buying and selling of bread; also, a branch of trade pursued as a means of gaining a livelihood; † bread-worship, the worship of the host, ARTOLATRY; whence bread-worshipper; † bread-wright, a baker.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iv. The *Bread-artist can travel contentedly round and round … and realize much: for himself victual.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxii. 123. The *bread-barge and beef-kid were overhauled.
1647. Haward, Crown Rev., 28. *Breadbearer: Fee, £1 10s. 4d.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 43. Let the Child’s Diet be … a thin *Bread-berry.
1864. J. Brown, Plain Wds. Health, 43–4. Giving the baby … thin bread-berry once a day for some time, so as gradually to wean it.
1564. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 223. Two cawels and a *breadbrayk iiijs.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xx. 199. Two bags of *bread-dust.
1840. S. Bamford, Life of Radical, I. 234 (Lanc. Gloss.). The large *bread-flake in the kitchen was speedily unthatched.
1866. E. Waugh, Ben an’ th’ Bantam, i. 11 (Lanc. Gloss.). A brade-fleigh or bread-rack, which was suspended from the ceiling, like a great square harp.
a. 1555. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 260. Requiring to know if their *bread-god had flesh … as our dear Redeemer had.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., lviii. 585. When they had made their Bread-God, they poysoned the Emperour with that Bread.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2078. Me drempte ic bar *bread-lepes ðre.
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, *Bread-meal, flour with the coarsest bran taken out … such as … produces ‘brown-bread.’
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 372. *Bread-Nut. The fruit boiled with salt fish … has been frequently the support of the negroes.
1866. Treas. Bot., I. 171/2. Bread-nut.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 12. The *Bread-roome is commonly vnder the Gun-roome.
1794. Ld. Hood, in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1845), I. 483, note. Put all you can get into your bread-room.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 94/2. P. esculenta, the *bread-root of North America, is cultivated along the banks of the Missouri.
1860. Frederica Rowan, Schleiermacher’s Life & Lett., I. 159. He has not studied any so-called *bread-science.
1496. Dives & Paup., VIII. xvii. 344/2. The ryche man shal gyue answere … of euery cromme of brede in his *bredeskep.
1857. Eliza Acton, Eng. Bread-bk., 13, note. Panetier du Roi, *bread-steward, bread-purveyor, or bread-controller, whose office was to regulate the distribution of bread in the royal household, and who had supreme authority over all the bakers of the kingdom.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iv. Is it not well that there should be what we call Professions or Bread-studies (Brodzwecke) preappointed us?
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., III. xxiii. 194. If you resolve to take art as a bread-study.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 326. These pursuits … sink into mere *bread-trades.
1641. Sanderson, Serm., II. 8. A shrewd appearance of their idolatrous *bread-worship.
1574. Life 70th Abp. Canterb., To Rdr. Superstitious Archsacrificers, and principall *breadworshippers.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2077. Quað ðis *bred-wriȝte, liðeð nu me.
