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bread-and-butter. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bread-and-butter, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bread-and-butter in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
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.
Adjective
bread-and-butter (comparative more bread-and-butter, superlative most bread-and-butter)
- Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living.
2015, Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder, page 34: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 […]
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread, and, butter.
bread-and-butter pudding
Interjection
bread-and-butter
- (archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck
- (archaic) A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree