Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Means of support; livelihood.
- n. The essential sustaining element or elements; the mainstay: "As ever, politics, vulgarity and sentimentality were the bread and butter of the Academy Awards” ( David Ansen).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Seeking bread and butter, or the means of living; controlled by material wants and desires; mercenary: as, the bread-and-butter brigade (applied to office-seekers in the United States).
- Eating much bread and butter, as young boys or girls; hence, belonging to adolescence; in the stage of growth: as, she's but a bread-and-butter miss.
Wiktionary
- n. Used other than as an idiom: see bread, butter.
- n. idiomatic That which is central or fundamental, as to one's business, survival, or income; a staple or cornerstone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (fig.) means of living.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the financial means whereby one lives
Examples
“For so long the meal was excessively dull; Hugh and Fleda had their own thoughts; Charlton was biting his resolution into every slice of bread and butter that occupied him; and Mr. Rossitur's face looked like anything but encouraging an inquiry into his affairs.”
“I think I detected a visible blush, though she found at that time a great deal to do in spreading bread and butter for James, and shuffling his plate; and, indeed, it was rather a vehement attack on her humility, since it gave her at least “angelic perfection,” if not “Adamic” (to use Methodist technics).”
“And does 'em good, too," said my grandmother, who reappeared from the buttery, with Miss Tina tilting and dancing before her, with a confirmatory slice of bread and butter and sugar in her hand.”
“Half an hour later when he was propped up in bed with a cup of hot milk and a plate of bread and butter and the lamp within easy reach, Nurse Kettle looked down at him with her quizzical air.”
“Roz said: Shape-shifting and fairy-bride archetypes have always been my bread and butter as a folklorist.”
““No lunch, Peely … cocoa … bread and butter … anything,” he murmured.”
“Hungry and happy, she enjoyed Margery's good bread and butter and the nice honey, and from time to time cast very bright looks at the dear face on the other side of the table, which could not help looking bright in reply.”
“As possibly you may recall, for some years after the death of her first husband, Kathleen Eppes Saumarez had earned precarious bread and butter as a lecturer before women's clubs, and was more or less engaged in journalism, chiefly as a reviewer of current literature.”
“The clutching 'normal' life of the valley diminished my awareness of something elemental that I took from the paleolithic silence and converted into paint: yet the canvases I sold for my bread and butter were usually full of colour and lightheartedness and were, in fact, mostly pictures of golf.”
“The young gentleman declared, rubbing his eyes, that he did not want it now; but, however, Fleda contrived to dispel that illusion, and bread and butter was found to have the same dulcifying properties at Queechy that it owns in all the rest of the world.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bread and butter’.
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such and such
alas and alack, apples and oranges, coffee and tea, cream and sugar, father and son, forgive and forget, ins and outs, kith and kin, knit and purl, milk and cookies, mother and daughter, odds and ends and 181 more...
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Siamese Twins - X and/or Y
Collocations with 'and' & 'or'
neither fish nor ..., neither hide nor ..., alive and kicking, all or nothing, an arm and a leg, apples and oranges, back and forth, be-all and end-all, bells and whistles, black and white, blood and guts, bow and arrow and 230 more...
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odds and ends
contrasting idioms incorporating 'and'
odds and ends, nook and cranny, plug and play, pick and roll, hunt and peck, nickel and dime, movers and shakers, salt and pepper, rack and ruin, profit and loss, rock and roll, rods and cones and 83 more...
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And Another Thing
adam and eve, again and again, alpha and omega, arts and crafts, b and b, back and forth, bacon and eggs, be-all and end-all, bells and whistles, black and blue, black and tan, blood and guts and 165 more...
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B is for Blue Canary
My B Words
bugbear, bette davis eyes, backstroke, barney, babushka, babycakes, backscratcher, bad news bears, balderdash, ballyhoo, baloney, bamboozle and 150 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bread and butter.
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