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gingerbread

[jin-jer-bred]
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noun
  1. a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.
  2. a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.
  3. elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation: a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.
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adjective
  1. heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented: a gingerbread style of architecture.
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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
Related formsgin·ger·bread·y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for gingerbread

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • She has been helping us make crumpets, crullers, gingerbread, and cake.

  • Suppose I should wish to buy a small piece of gingerbread for a cent.

    Rollo in Paris

    Jacob Abbott

  • Sairy, cutting the gingerbread into squares, held the knife suspended.

    The Long Roll

    Mary Johnston

  • "Well, you will have to if we have gingerbread for supper," said Gloriana.

    Tabitha's Vacation

    Ruth Alberta Brown

  • Now you can put in your gingerbread whenever you are ready, Glory.

    Tabitha's Vacation

    Ruth Alberta Brown

British Dictionary definitions for gingerbread

gingerbread

noun
  1. a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup
    1. a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing
    2. (as modifier)gingerbread man
    1. an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation
    2. (as modifier)gingerbread style of architecture
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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

Word Origin and History for gingerbread

n.

late 13c., gingerbrar, from Old French ginginbrat "ginger preserve," from Medieval Latin gingimbratus "gingered," from gingiber (see ginger). The ending changed by folk etymology to -brede "bread," a formation attested by mid-14c. Originally "preserved ginger," the meaning "a kind of spiced cake" is from 15c. Figurative use, "showy, insubstantial" is from c.1600. Sense of "fussy decoration on a house" is first recorded 1757; gingerbread-work (1748) was a sailor's term for carved decoration on a ship.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper