bread S2 W3 /bred/ BrE AmE noun [uncountable]
[ Language: Old English ]
1 . a type of food made from flour and water that is mixed together and then baked:
Would you like some bread with your soup?
a loaf of brown bread
a piece of bread and butter
2 . your/sb’s bread and butter informal the work that provides you with most of the money that you need in order to live:
Writing is my bread and butter.
3 . know which side your bread is buttered on informal to know which people to be nice to in order to get advantages for yourself
4 . old-fashioned informal money
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ adjectives
▪ fresh
Eat the bread while it’s nice and fresh.
▪ stale (=hard and no longer fresh)
This bread’s stale – shall I throw it away?
▪ crusty (=having a hard crust that is nice to eat)
Serve the soup with crusty bread.
▪ mouldy British English , moldy American English (=covered with a green substance that grows on old food)
All there was in the house was a loaf of mouldy old bread.
▪ white/brown bread
Would you like white bread or brown bread?
▪ wholewheat bread ( also wholemeal bread British English ) (=bread made with flour that contains all of the grain)
Wholemeal bread is good for you.
▪ home-made/home-baked bread
I love home-made bread.
■ phrases
▪ a slice/piece of bread
Can I have another slice of bread?
▪ a loaf of bread
He’s gone to buy a loaf of bread.
▪ a chunk of bread (=a piece that you pull off a loaf instead of cutting it)
He tore off a chunk of bread and dipped it in the sauce.
■ verbs
▪ make/bake bread
We usually make our own bread.
▪ cut/slice bread
Could you cut some bread?