breadbasket

Etymology

of bread]] From bread + basket.

noun

1. A basket used for storing or carrying bread.
   In theſe eaſtern countries they eat upon the plain ground, and when it is dinner-time they ſpread a round piece of leather, and lay about it tapeſtry, and ſometimes cuſhions, whereupon they ſit croſs-leg'd before they begin to eat, […] At laſt they take up the leathern table with bread and all, which ſerveth them alſo inſtead of a table-cloth and bread-basket, they draw it together with a ſtring lik a purſe, and hang it up in the next corner. 1738, Leonhart Rauwolf [i.e. Leonhard Rauwolf], John Ray, “Of the Great Trading and Dealing of the City of Aleppo;[…]”, in Nicholas Staphorst, transl., A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages.[…], 2nd corrected and improved edition, volume 2, London: Printed for J. Walthoe [et al.], →OCLC, page 73
   One of the servants went to a bread-basket there, and finding the damask napkin eaten away, she was led to see if any mouse-holes were to be seen: for this purpose she removed the bread-basket, and behind it she saw a bundle of something that looked very like white cotton; she touched it, and out jumped the little dormouse. 1834, [Joseph Rickerby], “The Arrival”, in The East Indians at Selwood; or, The Orphans’ Home, London: Darton and Harvey,[…], →OCLC, page 16
   Everything was impeccably organized for the dinner. Platters and salad bowls, bread baskets, pumpkin pies. The oven gave off a mouthwatering smell as we sat on a couple of high stools beneath the hanging pans. 2012, María Dueñas, translated by Elie Kerrigan, The Heart has Its Reasons: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Atria Paperback, Simon & Schuster, page 176
2. (agriculture) A region which has favourable conditions to produce a large quantity of grain or, by extension, other food products; a food bowl.
   [I]t is worth noting that if global warming produces a migration of the earth's breadbaskets, then it might damage one country's agriculture, while benefiting another's. 1990, Joshua M. Epstein, Raj Gupta, Controlling the Greenhouse Effect: Five Global Regimes Compared (Brookings Occasional Papers), Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, page 7
   Canada at the turn of the century had become the breadbasket of the British Empire and industrialised Europe and wheat grown on the prairies was consolidated in elevator at Fort William, Ontario to await shipment overseas. 1997, Peter Pigott, “C. D. Howe: Mister Trans-Canada Airlines”, in Flying Canucks II: Pioneers of Canadian Aviation, Toronto, Ont., Headington, Oxford: Hounslow Press, pages 71–72
3. (humorous) The abdomen or stomach, especially as a vulnerable part of the body in an attack.
   Tom Oliver thought he'd a very heavy stake in this here affair, as he was to fight Shelton, on the 23d, for a hundred. […] (Give it them, Tom! hit them in the bread-basket!) 1819 December, “The Pugilistic Ring”, in The Sporting Magazine or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the Chase and Every Other Diversion Interesting to the Man of Pleasure, Enterprise & Spirit, volume 5 (New Series; volume 55, Old Series), number 27, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wheble & J. Pittman,[…], published 1820, →OCLC, page 126