cereal
[seer-ee-uh l]
- any plant of the grass family yielding an edible grain, as wheat, rye, oats, rice, or corn.
- the grain itself.
- some edible preparation of it, especially a breakfast food.
- of or relating to grain or the plants producing it.
Origin of cereal
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cereal
Contemporary Examples
Along with crowds, Cereal Killer has also drawn polarizing responses from the public and the media.
In “Cartoons and Cereal,” he sings, “Reminisce when I had the morning appetite/ Apple Jacks, had nothing that I hit the TV Guide.”
You can even buy containers of their Cereal Milk in select stores.
Cereal brings back memories of lazy mornings and easy extravagance, a time when worries were few and comfort was plenty.
America already has a cereal cafe, Cereality, which has a store in Virginia and at the Dallas Fort Worth airport.
Historical Examples
The furfuroids of the cereal straws are therefore not pentosanes.
Researches on CelluloseC. F. Cross
However, it is too good a cereal to be treated in so ungenerous a fashion.
Agriculture for BeginnersCharles William Burkett
How does bread compare in nutritive value with other cereal foods?
Human Foods and Their Nutritive ValueHarry Snyder
It is not safe to adhere strictly to the directions on the package of any cereal.
The Eugenic Marriage, Vol 2 (of 4)W. Grant Hague
He had breakfasted at seven-thirty on fruit, cereal, and one egg, in disgrace.
Long Live the KingMary Roberts Rinehart
cereal
- any grass that produces an edible grain, such as oat, rye, wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet
- the grain produced by such a plant
- any food made from this grain, esp breakfast food
- (modifier) of or relating to any of these plants or their productscereal farming
Word Origin
C19: from Latin cereālis concerning agriculture, of Ceres 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cereal
n.
1832, "grass yielding edible grain," originally an adjective (1818) "having to do with edible grain," from French céréale (16c., "of Ceres;" 18c. in grain sense), from Latin Cerealis "of grain," originally "of Ceres," from Ceres, Italic goddess of agriculture, from PIE *ker-es-, from root *ker- "to grow" (see crescent). The application to breakfast food cereal made from grain is American English, 1899.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
cereal
[sîr′ē-əl]
- A grass, such as corn, rice, sorghum, or wheat, whose starchy grains are used as food. Cereals are annual plants, and cereal crops must be reseeded for each growing season. Cereal grasses were domesticated during the Neolithic Period and formed the basis of early agriculture.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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