gingerbread

[jin-jer-bred]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR gingerbread ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.

a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.

elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation: a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.

adjective

heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented: a gingerbread style of architecture.

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. 2019

Related Words for gingerbread

supplementary, added, ancillary, additional, unnecessary, extraneous, unused, extraordinary, fresh, supplemental, new, further, leftover, other, special, auxiliary, decorative, gaudy, lavish, sumptuous

Examples from the Web for gingerbread

Contemporary Examples of gingerbread

I don't think I was expecting a gingerbread house but I expected something a little more fun.
The Day I Met Charles Schulz
Daniel J. Levitin
February 12, 2013
Merton said that on Friday, Olivia had been excited to get home from school and make a gingerbread house.
Family of Olivia Engel, Lost in Newtown, Remembers Their Daughter
Matthew DeLuca
December 17, 2012
The first family decorates for the holidays with a 300-pound gingerbread White House and ‘Boflakes.’
Obamas Deck the White House Halls
Robin Givhan
November 28, 2012
Chocolate melts, cotton candy disintegrates, graham-cracker walls separate, and gingerbread roofs eventually cave in.
Inside Will Cotton's Candy World
Isabel Wilkinson
November 2, 2011
You've seen gingerbread houses...but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement?
You Better Not Cry
Daily Beast Promotions
December 1, 2009

Historical Examples of gingerbread

She has been helping us make crumpets, crullers, gingerbread, and cake.
Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times
Charles Carleton Coffin
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

a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup

a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing
(as modifier)gingerbread man

an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation
(as modifier)gingerbread style of architecture

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

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.