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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. 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 ² 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 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

In the late 1890s, John Harvey Kellogg, the director of a Seventh-day Adventist sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich., wanted a vegetarian breakfast alternative to the bacon and eggs his clients were accustomed to.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

The front page of the Daily Star is dedicated to a confession from Declan Donnelly, who said he once forgot to pay for an egg and bacon sandwich from Marks & Spencer.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

She has seen formats incorporating sandwiches, hot dogs and pizzas, and toppings ranging from Nashville Hot chicken and bacon strips to elote and lobster.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

“And he said, ‘Waking up, not to an alarm clock, and not having to go in and cook bacon and just being able to have a cup of coffee at home and cook for myself.’”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

She sat down to eat the last two pancakes and a single leftover slice of bacon.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

Bacon and a little onion get browned first; low-moisture mozzarella supplies the requisite cheese pull while provolone gives it a little more character.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

Haunting and powerful, her paintings, particularly those from the past decade, reveal her strong affinity with Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon and other artists who rendered the human form with febrile expressivity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

A year later, she performed “Holding Out for a Hero,” produced by Steinman and co-written by Dean Pitchford, for the 1984 film classic “Footloose,” starring Kevin Bacon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

The Bacon Hole discovery came a decade after Nash found a reindeer engraved on the wall of a cave nearby, which was confirmed in 2012 as the then-oldest known rock art in Britain in 2012.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

Bacon provided labels for this distinction: ‘pure mathematics’ and ‘mixed mathematics’.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• pancetta
• pork