breadliner

B3R1E1A1D2L1I1N1E1R1

noun

Someone who lives at the poverty level.

Scrabble 13
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Meanings

nounbreadliner (plural breadliners)

plural breadliners

  1. Someone who lives at the poverty level.

    After all the breadline makes breadliners.

    1975, Alex Baskin, The Unemployed (1930-1932), page 4
    2 more examples

    He looks vaguely charmed to meet a bona fide plebeian; a real-life breadliner.

    2009, Maria Roberts, Single Mother on the Verge

    Hannah Hill Chaplin's precipitous decline from headliner to breadliner was a devastating defeat for the formerly “light-hearted and gay” music hall comedienne, better known to her fans and admirers as "that charming little chanter, Lillie Harley" — or Lily Harley, the usual spelling.

    2011, Stephen Weissman, Chaplin: A Life

Origin

From breadline + -er.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

breadliner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breadliner

MLA

“breadliner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breadliner. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “breadliner,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breadliner.

Source: breadliner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.