Meanings
- alternativepluralsingularAlternative form of bread and butter.
"Nora!" exclaimed Miss Tilehurst almost severely—the family woman's inherent reverence for the source of bread-and-butter—"the office is his business. My nephew, Mr. Carrados," she explained, "is connected with the paper mills here […]"
1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London
comparative more bread-and-butter · superlative most bread-and-butter
- Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living.
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 […]
2015, Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder, page 34
- archaicA general saying used to ward off bad luck
- archaicA saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bread-and-butter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bread-and-butter
“bread-and-butter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bread-and-butter. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bread-and-butter,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bread-and-butter.
Source: bread-and-butter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.