daily bread

Possibly a reference to the Lord's Prayer in the Bible, part of which reads in the King James Version: “Give us this day our daily bread” (see Matthew 6:11, and compare Luke 11:3).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪli ˌbɹɛd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dai‧ly bread

daily bread (uncountable)

1. All those things, such as regular food and water, needed to sustain physical life.

   Coordinate term: lifeblood

   to earn one's daily bread

   • 1599, “S Matthaevs. Cap. VI. [Saint Matthew. Chapter 6.]”, in Eliæ Hutteri [i.e., Elias Hutter], editor, Novvm Testamentvm Dni Nri Iesv Christi: Syriacè, Ebraicè, Graecè, Latin, Germanicè, Bohemicè, Italicè, Hispanicè, Gallicè, Anglicè, Danicè, Polonicè [New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Syriac, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Czech, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Danish, Polish], Nuremberg: , →OCLC, page 79, column 1:

     11. Panem noſtrum ſuperſubſtātialem da nobis hodie. Giue vs this day our daily bread.

   • 1660, Richard Baxter, “The Epistle Dedicatory”, in A Treatise of Self-Denyall, Printed by Robert White, for Nevil Simmons bookseller in Kederminster, and are to be sold by him there, and by William Gilbertson at the Bible in Giltspurstreet without Newgate, and by Joseph Nevil at the Plow in Pauls Churchyard, →OCLC:

     So do by your dignity and eſtate: As you muſt ask but your Daily bread, ſo muſt you deſire no more: Neither poverty, nor riches, but convenient food: yet ſo as to learn to abound and to want, and in every ſtate to be content: […]

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, , London: W Taylor , →OCLC, page 156:

     […] I ought never more to repine at my Condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily Thanks for that daily Bread, which nothing but a croud of Wonders could have brought.

   • 1797, [John Bowdler], Reform or Ruin: Abridged. In which Every Man may Learn the True State of Things at this Time: And what that Reform is, which Alone can Save the Country!, 4th edition, London: Printed for J Hatchard, no. 173, opposite Burlington House, Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 17:

     To be thankful for ſuch good Things as we enjoy; for our Health, and Strength, and daily Bread, and many other Bleſſings, which we are too apt not to conſider as we ought. They are all the Gifts of God, and ought to be received as ſuch.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, “The Murder of Miss Pebmarsh”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T. Fisher Unwin, →OCLC, →OL:

     Money, mostly. Miss Pamela was over-fond of fine clothes, but Miss Pebmarsh, who was giving 'er a 'ome and daily bread, 'adn't much money to spare for fallalery.

   • 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXX, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:

     Her soul had been baked hard in the fire of adversity, and there was no altering it now; life to her was the hunt for daily bread, and ideas existed for her only as they bore upon that.

   • 1992, Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown‎, →ISBN:

     Mr Jackson and his co-workers earned their daily bread by supplying people with make-believe adventures and weird ideas. The more far-out, the better.

2. (by extension, chiefly Christianity) All those things, such as regular prayer, worship and meditation, needed to sustain spiritual life.
   • 1534 November, Willyam Tindale [i.e., William Tyndale], transl., “A Prologe to the Epistle of Paule to the Romayns”, in The Newe Testament  (Tyndale Bible), Antwerp: Marten Emperowr, folio ccii, verso:

     I thynke it mete / that euery Chriſten man not only knowe it [the Epistle to the Romans] by rote and with oute the boke / but alſo exerciſe him ſelfe therin euermore continually / as with the dayly brede of the ſoule.

   • 1817, Thomas Cranmer, “[Extracts from An Answer, by the Reverend Father in God, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan, unto a Crafty and Sophisticated Cavillation, Devised by Stephen Gardiner, Doctor of Law, Late Bishop of Winchester, against the True and Godly Doctrine of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Saviour Christ. First Printed in A.D. 1551, and afterwards in 1580, from which Last Edition the Extracts are Taken.] Connexion between the Sacraments and Our Resurrection.—At page 183.”, in Legh Richmond, editor, A Selection from the Writings of the Reformers and Early Protestant Divines of the Church of England. This Volume Contains Various Tracts and Extracts from the Works of Archbishop Cranmer; with a Memorial of His Life (The Fathers of the English Church; 3), London: Published by John Hatchard, bookseller to the Queen, 190, opposite Albany, Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 629:

     For he [Augustine of Hippo] calleth there the daily bread, which we continually pray for, either corporal bread and meat, which is our daily sustenance for the body, or else the visible sacrament of bread and wine, or the invisible sacraments of God's word and commandments; of the which sacraments God's word is daily heard, and the other is daily seen.

   • 1987, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen , “298. Corpus Christi: Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday: Year A”, in Divine Intimacy, enl. and rev. edition, volume III (Ninth Sunday through Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time), San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, →ISBN:

     This [the Eucharist] is not a physical food but a spiritual one, the very Body and Blood of Christ, offered for them as viaticum for their earthly journey. It is the "daily bread" which the faithful should ask for and eat -day, more hungry and eager for it than for earthly bread.

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