breakfast
Americannoun
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breakfasts
plural
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the first meal of the day; morning meal.
A hearty breakfast was served at 7 a.m.
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the food eaten at the first meal of the day.
a breakfast of bacon and eggs.
verb (used without object)
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breakfasts,
present (3rd person singular)
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breakfasted,
past participle, past
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breakfasting
present participle
verb (used with object)
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breakfasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
breakfasted,
past participle, past
-
breakfasting
present participle
noun
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-
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
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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breakfastsimple
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breakfastssimple
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have breakfastedperfect
-
has breakfastedperfect
-
am breakfastingprogressive
-
are breakfastingprogressive
-
is breakfastingprogressive
-
have been breakfastingperfect progressive
-
has been breakfastingperfect progressive
Past
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breakfastedsimple
-
had breakfastedperfect
-
was breakfastingprogressive
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were breakfastingprogressive
-
had been breakfastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of breakfast
First recorded in 1425–75, breakfast is from the late Middle English word brekfast. See break, fast 2
Explanation
Breakfast is the first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning. Eating a healthy breakfast may give you a boost of energy to start your day. The word breakfast comes from the idea of "breaking the fast" after a night of sleeping. A fast is a period of not eating. During sleep, the body goes without food for hours, so when you eat breakfast, you stop fasting and start eating again, restoring energy for the day ahead. Breakfast foods vary widely depending on culture and personal preference. Eggs, cereal, toast, pancakes, and fruit are commonly eaten for breakfast in some places. In other places, soup, salad, fish, and rice are preferred.
Vocabulary lists containing breakfast
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.
See Examples For:
Sitting down for a filling breakfast, instead of mainlining a protein bar, can feel irresponsible.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
About 25 minutes later, I gave it another few minutes to brown, scattered my already-chopped scallions over the top and sat down to a breakfast that felt vaguely café-quality on a Monday morning.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
If you’ve ever read anything by biographer Robert Caro, you get the feeling that he could wring 100 pages out of what he had for breakfast.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
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
Glenn was bringing his noon dinner and his breakfast too in a Karo syrup pail now.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
The feds operate more than a dozen food assistance programs, which provide grocery money for new parents and their toddlers, as well as free school breakfasts and lunches for lower-income children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
For years, when I remembered those breakfasts, I focused on all the times I had said no.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
“It’s a place to help veterans work through the VA, to help veterans job source, to help veterans come together for Taco Tuesdays and breakfasts and dinners,” Chandler says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Many people are reconsidering their Caesar salad lunches and berry breakfasts as cases of cyclosporiasis, the explosive-diarrhea illness, continue to rise in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
So even though the rocky land was cold and windy, the family brought their breakfasts of warm rice porridge out to eat.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
Mitt Romney in 2012 famously declared in Mississippi that he'd just breakfasted on "a biscuit and some cheesy grits" — drawing groans from a crowd who knew he meant cheese grits.
From US News ● Feb. 19, 2016
Administrations, breakfasted with editors, huddled with American nuclear experts, and briefed the Times editorial board.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 6, 2015
The well-heeled passengers breakfasted on smoked salmon and pastries, then boarded an air-conditioned Cuban government bus for a day of touring the city.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 7, 2015
We hastily strung up the ultralight silicone-coated tarp we’d bought specially for the trip, and breakfasted under it in relative comfort.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2013
After they had breakfasted Gandalf decided to go on again at once.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
An apocryphal story has George Washington breakfasting with Thomas Jefferson and referring to the Senate as a saucer intended to cool the passions of the intemperate lower chamber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
A study published last week in “Communications Engineering” details a breakthrough in egg science that, if widely adopted, could alter the course of human breakfasting forever.
From Salon ● Feb. 11, 2025
Clients include breakfasting Qataris, construction and security guards off overnight shifts and, this week, tourists in soccer jerseys descending on the country, where foreigners, mostly migrant workers, form the bulk of the 3 million population.
From Reuters ● Nov. 24, 2022
In the future, you could be breakfasting on false banana or snacking on pandanus tree fruit.
From BBC ● May 21, 2022
Like Mr. Clutter, the young man breakfasting in a cafe called the Little Jewel never drank coffee.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
