shortbread

American  

[shawrt-bred] / ˈʃɔrtˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a butter cookie commonly made in thick, pie-shaped wheels or rolled and cut in fancy shapes.

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shortbread British  

/ ˈʃɔːtˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a rich crumbly biscuit made from dough with a large proportion of butter

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Etymology

Origin of shortbread

First recorded in 1795–1805; short + bread

Explanation

Shortbread is a delicious sweet, crumbly Scottish cookie. If you want to bake your own shortbread, you'll need a lot of butter! Shortbread recipes vary, but most of them include a magical combination of flour, sugar, and butter. This traditional Scottish biscuit's high fat content gives it a crumbly texture caused by very short strands of gluten — and the short part of its name. Shortbread is associated with Christmas and the New Year in Scotland, where it also goes by the nickname shortie.

Example Sentences

Plus, there were shortbread cookies and chocolate cookies.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

Sitting on the deck, I put my nose to the glass and breathed in aromas of light peat, ripe plums, shortbread and, floating in on the breeze, sea air.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

That could put jobs at risk in Aberlour on Speyside, for instance, where Walker's makes shortbread in vast quantities, much of it for export, employing up to 1,700 people in peak pre-Christmas season.

From BBC • Aug. 18, 2025

They are plain like a glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut, or a slice of pound cake, or a piece of shortbread, or even your favorite sugar cookie - meaning they are best kind of plain.

From Salon • Jan. 2, 2025

Instead, I reared back, sat upright and made one hop, like a flea, onto the shortbread.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck