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• bacon
  bacon

  noun

  the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.
• Bacon
  Bacon

  noun

  Francis Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, 1561–1626, English essayist, philosopher, and statesman.

bacon

¹ American  

[bey-kuhn] / ˈbeɪ kən /

noun

• bacon
  plural

1. the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.

2. Also called white bacon.  South Midland and Southern U.S. pork cured in brine; salt pork.

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idioms

1. bring home the bacon,

   1. to provide for material needs; earn a living.

   2. to accomplish a task; be successful or victorious.

      Our governor went to Washington to appeal for disaster relief and brought home the bacon—$40 million.

2. save one's bacon, to allow one to accomplish a desired end; spare one from injury or loss.

   Quick thinking saved our bacon.

Bacon ² American  

[bey-kuhn] / ˈbeɪ kən /

noun

1. Francis Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, 1561–1626, English essayist, philosopher, and statesman.

2. Francis, 1910–92, English painter, born in Ireland.

3. Henry, 1866–1924, U.S. architect.

4. Nathaniel, 1647–76, American colonist, born in England: leader of a rebellion in Virginia 1676.

5. Roger The Admirable Doctor, 1214?–94?, English philosopher and scientist.

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Bacon ¹ British  

/ ˈbeɪkən /

noun

1. Francis , Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans. 1561–1626, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist; described the inductive method of reasoning: his works include Essays (1625), The Advancement of Learning (1605), and Novum Organum (1620)

2. Francis . 1909–92, British painter, born in Dublin, noted for his distorted, richly coloured human figures, dogs, and carcasses

3. Roger . ?1214–92, English Franciscan monk, scholar, and scientist: stressed the importance of experiment, demonstrated that air is required for combustion, and first used lenses to correct vision. His Opus Majus (1266) is a compendium of all the sciences of his age

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bacon ² British  

/ ˈbeɪkən /

noun

1. meat from the back and sides of a pig, dried, salted, and usually smoked

2. informal

   1. to achieve success

   2. to provide material support

3. informal to help someone to escape from danger

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Bacon Scientific  

/ bā′kən /

1. English scientist and philosopher who is noted for the wide range of his knowledge and writing on scientific topics. Bacon pioneered the idea that mathematics is fundamental to science and that experimentation is essential to test scientific theories.

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bacon More Idioms  

1. see bring home the bacon; save one's bacon.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bacon
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bacon

1300–50; Middle English bacoun < Anglo-French; Old French bacon < Germanic *bakōn- ( Old High German bacho back, ham, bacon) derivative of *baka- back ¹; compare Middle Dutch bake bacon

Explanation

Bacon is a thin, salty meat product that's often served beside eggs at breakfast. Some people like their bacon cooked until it's crispy. If you're a vegetarian, you might order a BLT and say, "Hold the bacon, please." Bacon comes from the belly or the sides of a pig, and it's typically swirled with fat, cured or smoked, and very flavorful. The word and the food have been around since at least the early 14th century, from a Proto-Germanic root, bakkon, or "back meat." Since the early 1900s, "bringing home the bacon" has been slang for earning a living.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bacon Bacon

For more than four decades, Yuk Wong has woken up every day at 4 a.m. and cooked bacon from before the sun rises until closing time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

The rest accumulated slowly and, for the most part, logically: lemon zest for brightness, bacon for savory crunch, avocado for cool richness.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

Here’s another reason to cover up in the thick of tick season this summer: There is a bite that can leave you allergic to burgers, bacon and steak.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

Don’t miss: ‘This guy has no manners’: My Airbnb guest requested I buy bacon and beer.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

Ninety percent of Hot Pockets have bacon in them.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

Nicholas Bacon KC for the claimants told the court the group took out insurance cover in the sum of £16.2m, and that ANL had "overspent what they'd told us they'd actually spent".

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

It was finished in 1922, and designed by Henry Bacon.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

Musing about couples who have been together for decades, Oldman brings up Kevin Bacon and his long marriage to Kyra Sedgwick.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026

The series of 10 red horizontal stripes was first found on the wall of a side chamber of Bacon Hole cave in Gower, Swansea, in 1912, before being dismissed years later as a natural phenomenon.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

The Art Form simply disintegrated, all at once, like one of those exploding, vanishing faces in paintings by the British artist Francis Bacon.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Related Words

• pancetta
• pork