gingerbread

[jin-jer-bred]

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.

adjective

1. heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented.

   a gingerbread style of architecture.

gingerbread

/ ˈdʒɪndʒəˌbrɛd /

noun

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

2. 1. a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread man

3. 1. an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread style of architecture

Other Word Forms

• gingerbready adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gingerbread¹

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

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

Some of the many fanciful gingerbread buildings that arose there were supposedly designed by the scandalously famous architect Stanford White and bore a resemblance to the Hotel del Coronado, which opened the same year.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• added www.thesaurus.com
• additional 
• ancillary 
• auxiliary 
• extraneous 
• extraordinary 
• fresh 
• further 
• leftover 
• new 
• other 
• special 
• supplemental 
• supplementary 
• unnecessary 
• unused