break bread

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

bread /brɛd/   n. 

[uncountable]
1. Food a food made of baked dough and containing flour, water or milk, and yeast:
   Buy two loaves of bread at the store.
2. food as a requirement of staying alive;
   livelihood:
   to earn one's bread.
3. Slang Terms Slang. money:
   I had no bread and no way of getting a job.

v. [~ + object]

4. Food to coat (meat, etc.) with breadcrumbs for cooking:
   Bread the veal thoroughly.

Idioms

5. Idioms break bread, to eat a meal, esp. with others:
   They sat down and broke bread.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

bread  (bred), n. 

1. Food a kind of food made of flour or meal that has been mixed with milk or water, made into a dough or batter, with or without yeast or other leavening agent, and baked.
2. food or sustenance;
   livelihood:
   to earn one's bread.
3. [Slang.] money.
4. [Eccles.] the wafer or bread used in a Eucharistic service.
5. Idioms break bread:
   • to eat a meal, esp. in companionable association with others.
   • to distribute or participate in Communion.
6. Idioms cast one's bread upon the waters, to act generously or charitably with no thought of personal gain.
7. Idioms know which side one's bread is buttered on, to be aware of those things that are to one's own advantage.
8. Idioms take the bread out of someone's mouth, to deprive someone of livelihood.

v.t. 

9. Food [Cookery.] to cover with breadcrumbs or meal.

• bef. 950; 1950–55 for def. 3; Middle English breed, Old English brēad fragment, morsel, bread; cognate with German Brot

bread′less, adj. 
bread′less•ness, n.