peanut butter and jelly

English

Alternative forms

• PB&J, PBJ (initialism)

Noun

peanut butter and jelly (countable and uncountable, plural peanut butter and jellies)

1. (uncountable, US) Peanut butter and jelly (or jam) that is spread on bread to make a sandwich.
2. (countable, US) A sandwich consisting of bread spread with layers of peanut butter and jelly.

   Alternative form: peanut-butter-and-jelly

   • 1971, Michael Weller, Five Plays‎, published 1997, Moonchildren, page 19:

     On your average march you'll find you get through a good two peanut butter and jellies before you even get to where you're supposed to demonstrate

   • 1979, Donald Barthelme, "Aria", originally published in The New Yorker, republished in Sixty Stories (1981)

     Sometimes they drift in from the Yukon and other far places, come in and sit down at the kitchen table, want a glass of milk and a peanut-butter-and-jelly, .

   • 1994, Tom Clancy, Armored Cav‎, page 167:

     And by the end of the Apollo moon-landing program, NASA was allowing common grocery items like bread slices, canned meats, and peanut butter and jellies on lunar missions.

   • 1996, Sherman Alexie, “Indian Killer”, in Peter Donahue, John Trombold, editors, Reading Seattle: The City in Prose, published 2014, page 209:

     I've got a peanut butter and jelly for your son.

   • 2002, W. Z. Nelson, Hurricane Summer‎, page 72:

     Her mother stuffed a peanut butter and jelly into a bag and turned to look at Emily.

   • 2015, Susan Behon, Made for Me‎:

     They sat across from each other on the blanket eating peanut butter and jellies and drinking pop.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see peanut butter,‎ jelly.