Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Influenced by or undertaken out of necessity: a bread-and-butter job.
- adj. Reliable, especially for producing income; basic: Household appliances are the company's bread-and-butter goods.
- adj. Expressive of gratitude for hospitality: a bread-and-butter note.
Wiktionary
- adj. Used other than as an idiom: see bread, and, butter.
- adj. Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living for the masses.
- interj. archaic A general saying used to ward off bad luck
- interj. archaic A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree
Examples
“In fact, one would be hard pressed to identify a strike in 1919—or any strike in the United States in the twentieth century—that was not for the so-called bread-and-butter objectives of more money and less work.”
“They are what Warnock calls his "bread-and-butter players" and their hard-nosed experience has provided Rangers with a spine that had been absent.”
“Its signature M-ATV is now nearing the end of a hugely profitable production run, and its new bread-and-butter military vehicle, the F-MTV, has failed to turn a profit.”
The Huffington Post: Insight: Wisconsin clash spotlights U.S. labor-management rift
“Other U.K. and European banks, such as Credit Suisse Group , UBS AG and Lloyds Banking Group PLC, have also announced job cuts recently, as higher regulatory costs bite into their profits and amid a slump in revenue from bread-and-butter activities such as fixed-income trading.”
The Wall Street Journal: HSBC Strategy Shift Cuts Jobs, Branches
“As I said then, I didn't want to be distracted by interesting but extraneous issues of global finance, focusing instead on the bread-and-butter of stock investing: revenue and earnings.”
“They are the bread-and-butter novels I can't wait to sell, the books people talk about all year long, the books they buy for their sisters and fathers, the book they press into the hands of friends with insistent, almost violent exhortations.”
Cutting For Stone: Summary and book reviews of Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese.
“Fannie, by contrast, loosened its standards for its bread-and-butter business of stamping a guarantee on mortgages that were bundled and sold to investors as securities.”
“We have a lot to be proud of, from the working people of Wisconsin having the strength and courage to stand up and fight back against a governor and legislature that prioritizes corporate interests over bread-and-butter issues of working families, to the incredible bravery of the women who threw their hats in the ring to take back the Wisconsin Senate.”
“I'm not crazy about bread-and-butter anything, but I'll have to try this with regular pickled jalapenos!”
“I realize that all sorts of crazy weapons systems are justifiable by this same rationale, but a fighter jet (like a bomber, or a tank, or a troop transport) seems like a bread-and-butter war implement.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bread-and-butter’.
-
Hyphen Nation
Terms with multiple hyphens, such as rent-a-crowd. Not intended to be a see-how-many-words-one-can-string-together-with-hyphens-used-adjectively sort of list.
much-talked-of, vis-à-vis, tête-à-tête, rope-a-dope, will-o'-the-wisp, dick-a-tuesday, will-in-the-wisp, jack-o'-lantern, jack-with-a-lantern, ear-to-ear, whack-a-mole, no-man's-land and 205 more...
-
In a pickle
Mmmm... pickles... They go well with luncheon meats.
dill, half-sour, bread-and-butter, garlic dill, gherkin, kosher dill, ogórek kiszony, sweet, lime, swedish, candied, overnight dill and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bread-and-butter.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.