| Learning / English Dictionary |
BREAD AND BUTTER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The financial means whereby one lives
Example:
he could no longer earn his own livelihood
Synonyms:
bread and butter; keep; livelihood; living; support; sustenance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("bread and butter" is a kind of...):
resource (available source of wealth; a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bread and butter"):
amenities; comforts; conveniences; creature comforts (things that make you comfortable and at ease)
maintenance (means of maintenance of a family or group)
meal ticket (a source of income or livelihood)
subsistence (minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting)
Context examples:
I see her yet in her raging passions, when we had driven her to extremities—spilt our tea, crumbled our bread and butter, tossed our books up to the ceiling, and played a charivari with the ruler and desk, the fender and fire-irons.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Jim was a plumber's apprentice whose weak chin and hedonistic temperament, coupled with a certain nervous stupidity, promised to take him nowhere in the race for bread and butter.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Well, they can eat beef and bread and butter, if they are hungry, only it's mortifying to have to spend your whole morning for nothing, thought Jo, as she rang the bell half an hour later than usual, and stood, hot, tired, and dispirited, surveying the feast spread before Laurie, accustomed to all sorts of elegance, and Miss Crocker, whose tattling tongue would report them far and wide.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Old times crowded fast back on me as I watched her bustling about—setting out the tea-tray with her best china, cutting bread and butter, toasting a tea-cake, and, between whiles, giving little Robert or Jane an occasional tap or push, just as she used to give me in former days.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
