gingerbread
Americannoun
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a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.
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a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.
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elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation.
a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.
adjective
noun
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a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup
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a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing
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( as modifier )
gingerbread man
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an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation
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( as modifier )
gingerbread style of architecture
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Other Word Forms
- gingerbready adjective
Etymology
Origin of gingerbread
1250–1300; Middle English gingebreed (influenced by breed bread), variant of gingebrad, -brat ginger paste < Old French gingembras, -brat preserved ginger < Medieval Latin *gingi ( m ) brātum a medicinal preparation (neuter past participle), derivative of Latin gingiber ginger
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.
But having had it in year’s past, as well as a Halloween version of the cookie just a couple weeks ago, I can vouch for the fact that it is quality, soft gingerbread.
From Los Angeles Times
At the official song contest draw to decide the running order, international delegations are being treated to a Russian feast, including cottage cheese pancakes and gingerbread sporting the Intervision logo.
From BBC
For his part, Alastair, who runs a gingerbread business, describes the donation as his "legacy".
From BBC
It has the warmth of gingerbread and the blueberries impart freshness more than flavor.
From Salon
Police are the only people walking around the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.
From BBC
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.
