breadcrumb

American

[bred-kruhm] / ˈbrɛdˌkrʌm /

noun

a crumb of bread, either dried or soft.
Also called breadcrumb trail. Digital Technology. Usually breadcrumbs. a sequence of text links on the current page of a website or web-based application, usually at the top, showing the page's location within a hierarchy of content or browsing history and providing a convenient navigational tool.

Online shoppers can use breadcrumbs to see other products in the same category.

breadcrumb British

/ ˈbrɛdˌkrʌm /

noun

the soft inner part of bread
(plural) bread crumbled into small fragments, as for use in cooking

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

to coat (food) with breadcrumbs

egg and breadcrumb the escalopes

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of breadcrumb

First recorded in 1760–70; bread + crumb

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.

Apps like PayPal, Square, Breadcrumb, Apple Pay and Facebook’s new payment feature are supposed to be making paying for things easier.

From New York Times • Mar. 25, 2015

Only recently has a semi-cogent picture of Slint emerged in Lance Bangs’s documentary Breadcrumb Trail, a film that poses more questions than it answers.

From The Guardian • Aug. 15, 2014

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023