breakfast
[ brek-fuh st ]
/ ˈbrɛk fəst /
noun
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)
to eat breakfast: He breakfasted on bacon and eggs.
verb (used with object)
to supply with breakfast: We breakfasted the author in the finest restaurant.
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Nearby words
- breaker strip,
- breaker zone,
- breakerless ignition,
- breakeven,
- breakeven chart,
- breakfast club,
- breakfast food,
- breakfront,
- breaking,
- breaking and entering
Origin of breakfast
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for breakfast
breakfast
/ (ˈbrɛkfəst) /
noun
- 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
to eat or supply with breakfast
Word Origin for breakfast
C15: from break + fast ²
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
breakfast
mid-15c., from break (v.) + fast (n.). The verb is recorded from 1670s. Related: Breakfasted; breakfasting.
Spanish almuerzo "lunch," but formerly and still locally "breakfast," is from Latin admorsus, past participle of admordere "to bite into," from ad- "to" + mordere "to bite." In common with almuerzo, words for "breakfast" tend over time to shift in meaning toward "lunch;" cf. French déjeuner "breakfast," later "lunch" (equivalent of Spanish desayuno "breakfast"), both from Vulgar Latin *disieiunare "to breakfast," from Latin dis- + ieiunare, jejunare "fast" (see jejune; also cf. dine). German Frühstück is from Middle High German vruostücke, literally "early bit." Old English had morgenmete "morning meal."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper