bread-and-butter letter

Idioms  

1. A thank-you letter from guest to host. For example, Mother always had to remind the children to send Grandma a bread-and-butter note. [c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bread-and-butter letter

"A bread-and-butter letter; Mother says it's all right."

From Marjorie at Seacote by Carolyn Wells

Jimmie's "bread-and-butter" letter gave me such joy that I copy it here, which shows how little I care for the conventions of life, inasmuch as I reproduce none of the others.

From At Home with the Jardines by Lilian Bell

And so the "bread-and-butter" letter went to Mr. and Mrs. Geary both, and was kept and treasured by them as one of their choicest possessions.

From Marjorie at Seacote by Carolyn Wells

Within ten days after her departure the guest should write a bread-and-butter letter to her hostess.

From Book of Etiquette, Volume 2 by Lillian Eichler Watson

One of these is what a college boy recently described in my hearing as the "bread-and-butter letter."

From The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) by Marion Harland

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