gingerbread
Americannoun
-
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
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
-
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 she only fell in love with the brand when she saw a gingerbread house plushie on the Chinese social media app RedNote.
From BBC
But in the meantime, seasonal enthusiasm for the house could be satisfied by a gingerbread facsimile thereof that was open to the public in Hollywood.
From MarketWatch
And each year, when the twinkling holiday lights fade to a hazy glow and the gingerbread is nothing more than crumbs, I thank copyright law for giving me my favorite Christmas tradition: Ebony Scrooge.
From Salon
We listened to Christmas music while making gingerbread and sipping cranberry apple cider.
A new festive edition of The Apprentice, which will air over two nights ahead of a full-length celebrity series next year, will see a group of stars make and market gingerbread biscuits.
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.
