bread

bread S2 W3 /bred/ BrE AmE noun [uncountable]
[Language: Old English]
1. a type of food made from flour and water that is mixed together and then baked:
Would you like some bread with your soup?
a loaf of brown bread
a piece of bread and butter
2. your/sb’s bread and butter informal the work that provides you with most of the money that you need in order to live:
Writing is my bread and butter.
3. know which side your bread is buttered on informal to know which people to be nice to in order to get advantages for yourself
4. old-fashioned informal money
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ adjectives
▪ fresh Eat the bread while it’s nice and fresh.
▪ stale (=hard and no longer fresh) This bread’s stale – shall I throw it away?
▪ crusty (=having a hard crust that is nice to eat) Serve the soup with crusty bread.
▪ mouldy British English, moldy American English (=covered with a green substance that grows on old food) All there was in the house was a loaf of mouldy old bread.
▪ white/brown bread Would you like white bread or brown bread?
▪ wholewheat bread (also wholemeal bread British English) (=bread made with flour that contains all of the grain) Wholemeal bread is good for you.
▪ home-made/home-baked bread I love home-made bread.
■ phrases
▪ a slice/piece of bread Can I have another slice of bread?
▪ a loaf of bread He’s gone to buy a loaf of bread.
▪ a chunk of bread (=a piece that you pull off a loaf instead of cutting it) He tore off a chunk of bread and dipped it in the sauce.
■ verbs
▪ make/bake bread We usually make our own bread.
▪ cut/slice bread Could you cut some bread?

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

bread

bread [bread breads breaded breading] [bred] [bred] noun uncountable
1. a type of food made from flour, water and usually yeast mixed together and baked
• a loaf/slice/piece of bread
• white/brown/wholemeal bread

see also crispbread, French bread, gingerbread

2. (old-fashioned, slang) money
more at your daily bread at daily _adj., half a loaf is better than no bread at half _det., know which side your bread is buttered at know _v., the best thing since sliced bread at sliced
Idiom: take the bread out of somebody's mouth
Word Origin:
Old English brēad, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch brood and German Brot.
Example Bank:
• He had to live on bread and water for two weeks.
• People started going up to receive the bread and wine.
• She tore off a large hunk of bread.
• This bread is going stale.
• What would you like on your bread?
• a plate of bread and butter
• bread thickly spread with peanut butter
• bread thickly spread with plum jam
• loaves of crusty French bread
• some nice crusty white bread

• the smell of freshly baked bread

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition

bread / bred / noun [ U ]

A1 a food made from flour, water, and usually yeast, mixed together and baked:

a slice of bread

a loaf of bread

white/brown bread

wholemeal ( US whole wheat ) bread

sliced bread

This bread is fresh/stale .

Do you bake your own bread?

Collins Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary

bread

/bred/
(breads, breading, breaded)

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.

1.
Bread is a very common food made from flour, water, and yeast.
...a loaf of bread...
There is more fibre in wholemeal bread than in white bread.
N-MASS

2.
If food such as fish or meat is breaded, it is covered in tiny pieces of dry bread called breadcrumbs. It can then be fried or grilled.
It is important that food be breaded just minutes before frying.
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed
• bread‧ed
...breaded fish.
ADJ

Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary

¹bread /ˈbrɛd/ noun, pl breads
1 : a baked food made from a mixture of flour and water

[noncount]

• She bakes bread every day.
• a loaf/slice/piece/hunk of bread

[count]

• The bakery offers a nice selection of breads and pastries.
- often used before another noun
• bread crumbs
• a bread knife [=a knife used for cutting bread]
2 [noncount] old-fashioned slang : money
• I took the job because I needed to earn some bread. [=(more commonly) dough]
break bread : to have a meal together
• He received an invitation to break bread with the president.
know which side your bread is buttered on informal : to know how to act or how to treat others in order to get what you want
• He pretends to be impartial, but believe me, he knows which side his bread is buttered on.