Did you know?
Bread is a food consisting of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded into dough, and often fermented using yeast, and it has been a major sustenance since prehistoric times. With the right ingredients, it can be a source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (add whole wheat, and you increase its nutritional value). Through synecdoche, its name rose to refer to any source of food or sustenance. Reference to a path to sustenance followed in the 18th century. "I was under no necessity of seeking my bread," recounts Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Dough had already been used to refer to money in 19th-century slang and, in a natural extension, bread was served with the same meaning in the jazz and beat slang of the mid-20th century ("Dean just raced in society, eager for bread and love," writes beatnik Jack Kerouac).
Examples of bread in a Sentence
Anne Byrn, Southern Living, 8 July 2025
Dutch breakfast crisp breads — beschuit as they are known.
—Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 7 July 2025
Paul Caputo, Forbes.com, 4 July 2025
Those who prefer a thin sheath of breading around their fish might be a smidge put off by Love Handle’s catfish, which is cocooned in a hefty, pebbly crust more akin to a pork tenderloin.
—Bradley Hohulin, IndyStar, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for bread
Cite this Entry
“Bread.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bread. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bread
1 of 2 nounbread
2 of 2 verb
Share