bread

Etymology 1

From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“cooked food, leavened bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrew- (“to boil, seethe”) (see brew). Alternatively, from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brad (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), Danish and Norwegian brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Albanian brydh (“I make crumbly, friable, soft”), Latin frustum (“crumb”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”).

noun

1. (uncountable)
   1. A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.
      We made sandwiches with the bread we bought from the bakery.
      Any leftover bread can be put into the pudding.
   2. Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
      Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (countable) Any variety of bread.
3. (slang, US or Cockney) Money.
   […] save up all your bread, and fly Trans-Love Airways to San Francisco, USA. 1967, “San Franciscan Nights”, in Winds of Change, performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals
   And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar / And say, "Man, what are you doing here?" 1973, Billy Joel (lyrics and music), “Piano Man”, Billy Joel (music), performed by Billy Joel
   Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it. 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG

verb

1. (transitive) To coat with breadcrumbs.
   breaded fish

Etymology 2

From Middle English brede (“breadth, width, extent”), from Old English brǣdu (“breadth, width, extent”), from Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ (“breadth”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”), Icelandic breidd (“breadth”).

noun

1. (obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Breadth.

Etymology 3

From Middle English breden (“to spread”), from Old English brǣdan (“to make broad, extend, spread, stretch out; be extended, rise, grow”), from Proto-Germanic *braidijaną (“to make broad, broaden”).

verb

1. (transitive, dialectal) To make broad; spread.

Etymology 4

Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan (“to braid”).

verb

1. (transitive) To form in meshes; net.

noun

1. A piece of embroidery; a braid.