white bread

plural white breads · alternative white-bread · alternative whitebread · alternative whitebread

1. uncountableusuallyBread made from white flour.

   Well, then, fix it up nice, waiter, and make mine baked hash an’ mashed ’taters and stewed corn and waiter!—plain white bread, no fancy rolls!

   1936 December 23, Hazel Livingston, “‘Love’s Litany’”, in Walter V. Hogan, editor, The Daily Reporter, volume XX, number 53, White Plains, N.Y.: White Plains Publishing Company, →OCLC, chapter IX, page 18, column 4

   2 more examples

   Yes—just become a Communist, and things get all right. Deny your Christ and they will give you white bread in plenty and clothes to wear—" He would hold his breath, would wonder and question: "What is white bread? And who is Christ?"

   1933, Edith Almedingen, “White Bread for Creeds”, in The Catholic World, volume 136

   At one time, when the commandant felt especially indebted, he sent the other officers out of his office and opened the safe. There it was, securely hidden, an entire loaf of white bread. He cut a large slice, wrapped it in newspaper and, beaming, handed this precious gift to Ildikó. "Just for you. I, as the commandant, am entitled to some white bread," he said proudly. Ildikó was touched, not by the value of the gift but by the realization of the Russians' grave poverty.

   1998, Csaba Teglas, chapter VII, in Budapest Exit, page 73

   1. idiomaticoftenuncountableusuallyA storebought, mass-produced, inexpensive type of such bread that is very soft and is usually in the Pullman loaf shape.

      There's a pretty big difference between American cheese on white bread and sharp cheddar on French bread.

2. USderogatoryethnicoftenslangsluruncountableusuallyA middle-class white person (person of European descent), or a person who 'acts white'.

   Teyshawn wanted to yell whitebreads did it—fucking whitebreads.

   2006, Michael Soltys, The Grass Is Green, section 296

   1 more example

   evelyn. Fuck you, white bread. vincent. Oh, I'm white? evelyn. You don't act black. vincent. (smiling) And yet, people still treat me like I'm black.

   2011, Kathryn Grant, The Good Counselor, act I, scene ii

comparative more white bread · superlative most white bread · alternative white-bread · alternative whitebread · alternative whitebread

1. UScolloquialderogatoryBland, boring; flavorless.

   He’s always thought of himself as boring, “a white-bread suburban househusband.”

   2022 May 11, Alexandra Alter, quoting Kim Stanley Robinson, “A Sci-Fi Writer Returns to Earth: ‘The Real Story Is the One Facing Us’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   She's been living in her white bread world / As long as anyone with hot blood can / And now she's looking for a downtown man

   1983, Billy Joel, “Uptown Girl”

   This is our chance to make a name for ourselves; to show that we're not just some piss-ant white-bread mountain town.

   1997 August 20, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, “Weight Gain 4000”, in South Park, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Mayor McDaniels

   Synonyms: conventional, bourgeois, wonderbread, banal, basic, mindless, beat, blah

2. USderogatoryethnicoftenslangslurCharacteristic of or relating to middle-class white people.

   [Rudy] Giuliani is hedging a bit, but he's not the white-bread cop so many blacks expect him to be.

   1993 November 15, Eric Pooley, “Can Giuliani Pull It Together?”, in New York, volume 26, number 45, page 53

   Synonyms: wonderbread