breakfast
Americannoun
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breakfasts
plural
-
the first meal of the day; morning meal.
A hearty breakfast was served at 7 a.m.
-
the food eaten at the first meal of the day.
a breakfast of bacon and eggs.
verb (used without object)
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breakfasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
breakfasted,
past participle, past
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breakfasting
present participle
verb (used with object)
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breakfasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
breakfasted,
past participle, past
-
breakfasting
present participle
noun
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-
the first meal of the day
-
( as modifier )
breakfast cereal
a breakfast room
-
-
the food at this meal
-
(in the Caribbean) a midday meal
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
breakfastsimple
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breakfastssimple
-
have breakfastedperfect
-
has breakfastedperfect
-
am breakfastingprogressive
-
are breakfastingprogressive
-
is breakfastingprogressive
-
have been breakfastingperfect progressive
-
has been breakfastingperfect progressive
Past
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breakfastedsimple
-
had breakfastedperfect
-
was breakfastingprogressive
-
were breakfastingprogressive
-
had been breakfastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of breakfast
First recorded in 1425–75, breakfast is from the late Middle English word brekfast. See break, fast 2
Explanation
Breakfast is the first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning. Eating a healthy breakfast may give you a boost of energy to start your day. The word breakfast comes from the idea of "breaking the fast" after a night of sleeping. A fast is a period of not eating. During sleep, the body goes without food for hours, so when you eat breakfast, you stop fasting and start eating again, restoring energy for the day ahead. Breakfast foods vary widely depending on culture and personal preference. Eggs, cereal, toast, pancakes, and fruit are commonly eaten for breakfast in some places. In other places, soup, salad, fish, and rice are preferred.
Vocabulary lists containing breakfast
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
How do you take your coffee and breakfast?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
"The pope had a good night in the hospital. He got up and had breakfast," the Vatican said in a short statement on Telegram.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Students who reported healthier habits, including regular physical activity and consistent breakfast consumption, also tended to demonstrate greater psychological flexibility and resilience.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
The next morning, there were shocked faces when the players realised everybody had made it to breakfast unscathed, with the celebrities concluding that one player must have been recruited.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
And with a baleful glance at the big brown hat, she picked up the little fur one and started after Betsie round the stairs down to breakfast.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"I have weekly breakfasts, we have a tent at events like agricultural fairs," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
The feds operate more than a dozen food assistance programs, which provide grocery money for new parents and their toddlers, as well as free school breakfasts and lunches for lower-income children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
“It’s a place to help veterans work through the VA, to help veterans job source, to help veterans come together for Taco Tuesdays and breakfasts and dinners,” Chandler says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
If approved, the state would have a constitutional mandate to provide free lunches and breakfasts for all K-12 public school students.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
They finished their breakfasts hastily, said good-bye to Fred and George, and walked back through the hall.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Hazzard said the baboons were “well and resting” after their foiled escape attempt and had breakfasted on bananas, capsicum, apple and bread.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2020
These genes were much more active when the men had fasted before exercise than when they had breakfasted.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2017
Mitt Romney in 2012 famously declared in Mississippi that he'd just breakfasted on "a biscuit and some cheesy grits" — drawing groans from a crowd who knew he meant cheese grits.
From US News ● Feb. 19, 2016
Administrations, breakfasted with editors, huddled with American nuclear experts, and briefed the Times editorial board.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 6, 2015
Though it was not fully light, Sander and I dressed, breakfasted, and set out for the Globe.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
A study published last week in “Communications Engineering” details a breakthrough in egg science that, if widely adopted, could alter the course of human breakfasting forever.
From Salon ● Feb. 11, 2025
Clients include breakfasting Qataris, construction and security guards off overnight shifts and, this week, tourists in soccer jerseys descending on the country, where foreigners, mostly migrant workers, form the bulk of the 3 million population.
From Reuters ● Nov. 24, 2022
In the future, you could be breakfasting on false banana or snacking on pandanus tree fruit.
From BBC ● May 21, 2022
Two majors after that, he won the 2018 PGA Championship in St. Louis after breakfasting on Sunday with a two-shot lead he treated without tremble.
From Washington Post ● May 18, 2019
Conclusion reached by the Annex while breakfasting at nine: this is a trial landing, like the one two years ago in Dieppe.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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