"bread-and-butter" meaning in English

See bread-and-butter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more bread-and-butter [comparative], most bread-and-butter [superlative]
Etymology: Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on. Head templates: {{en-adj}} bread-and-butter (comparative more bread-and-butter, superlative most bread-and-butter)
  1. Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living.
    Sense id: en-bread-and-butter-en-adj-jrprrTGB Categories (other): English coordinated pairs, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 18 8 34 40 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 23 5 38 34 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 22 4 39 35
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread, and, butter.
    Sense id: en-bread-and-butter-en-adj-qOgqw2t~

Interjection

Etymology: Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on. Head templates: {{en-interj}} bread-and-butter
  1. (archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-bread-and-butter-en-intj-ZaMoxxbn Categories (other): English coordinated pairs, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 18 8 34 40 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 23 5 38 34 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 22 4 39 35
  2. (archaic) A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-bread-and-butter-en-intj-JzcB5l7c Categories (other): English coordinated pairs, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 18 8 34 40 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 23 5 38 34 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 22 4 39 35
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: bread-and-butter issue, bread-and-butter letter, bread-and-butter note, bread-and-butter pickle, bread-and-butter plate, bread-and-butter pudding

Download JSON data for bread-and-butter meaning in English (4.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more bread-and-butter",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
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    },
    {
      "form": "most bread-and-butter",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder, page 34",
          "text": "These road warrior plays were fronted by former semistars like Forrest Tucker or Hugh O'Brian, who had had their bread-and-butter TV shows cancelled. The job could pay $3,000 to $5,000 a week […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living."
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      "id": "en-bread-and-butter-en-adj-jrprrTGB"
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "bread-and-butter pudding",
          "type": "example"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread, and, butter."
      ],
      "id": "en-bread-and-butter-en-adj-qOgqw2t~",
      "links": [
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        [
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          "butter#English"
        ]
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    }
  ],
  "word": "bread-and-butter"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.",
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  "related": [
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    },
    {
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      "word": "bread-and-butter letter"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "bread-and-butter note"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "bread-and-butter pickle"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "bread-and-butter plate"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
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      "glosses": [
        "A general saying used to ward off bad luck"
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      "id": "en-bread-and-butter-en-intj-ZaMoxxbn",
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        "(archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more bread-and-butter",
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    {
      "form": "most bread-and-butter",
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        "Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living."
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          "text": "bread-and-butter pudding",
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.",
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      "word": "bread-and-butter pudding"
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        "(archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck"
      ],
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      "categories": [
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        "A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree"
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        "(archaic) A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree"
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}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.