zwieback

noun

zwie·back | \ˈswē-ˌbak,

ˈswī-, ˈzwē-, ˈzwī-, -ˌbäk

\

Definition of zwieback

: a usually sweetened bread enriched with eggs that is baked and then sliced and toasted until dry and crisp

Crunch on the History of Zwieback

In ages past, keeping food fresh for any length of time required a lot of ingenuity, especially when one needed to carry comestibles on a long journey. One of the solutions people came up with for keeping bread edible for traveling was to bake it twice, thereby drying it and slowing the spoiling process. The etymology of zwieback reflects this baker's trick; it was borrowed from a German word that literally means "twice baked." Nowadays, zwieback is not just used as a foodstuff—the texture of the dried bread makes zwieback a suitable teething device for infants. Incidentally, other twice-baked goods whose origins reflect that fact include biscuit and biscotti, both of which come from phrases meaning "twice-cooked bread."

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about zwieback

Listen to Our Podcast about zwieback

Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Dictionary Entries near zwieback

zwetschenwasser

Zwickau prophet

Statistics for zwieback

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for zwieback

The first known use of zwieback was in 1863

See more words from the same year

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for zwieback

zwieback

noun

English Language Learners Definition of zwieback

: a dry, hard bread that is eaten especially by young children

See the full definition for zwieback in the English Language Learners Dictionary

zwieback

noun

zwie·back | \ˈswē-ˌbak,

ˈswī-\

Kids Definition of zwieback

: a usually sweetened bread made with eggs that is baked and then sliced and toasted until dry and crisp

WORD OF THE DAY

lunette

the figure or shape of a crescent moon

Test Your Vocabulary

Late Autumn 2018 Words of the Day Quiz

Which is a synonym of yahoo?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games