shortbread

[ shawrt-bred ]

/ ˈʃɔrtˌbrɛd /

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noun

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

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Origin of shortbread

First recorded in 1795–1805; short + bread

Words nearby shortbread

short and sweet, short ballot, short bill, short-billed marsh wren, shortboard, shortbread, shortcake, shortchange, short circuit, short column, shortcoming

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use shortbread in a sentence

It turns out shortbread is a great “blank canvas” for adding all kinds of flavorings, from herbs to citrus to nuts and spices to liquor and liqueurs.
Bake These Boozy Hot Buttered Rum Shortbread Cookies|Anna Archibald|December 17, 2021|The Daily Beast
Before Lisa Ludwinski opened Sister Pie’s brick-and-mortar bakery in Detroit in 2015, shortbread wasn’t really on her radar.
Bake These Boozy Hot Buttered Rum Shortbread Cookies|Anna Archibald|December 17, 2021|The Daily Beast
My mama prefers the comfort of cakes like the semolina-and-coconut bathk and simple shortbread biscuits like nankhatais.
How I Tried (and Failed) And Tried Again to Master the Goan Bebinca Cake|Joanna Lobo|April 1, 2021|Eater
Linzer cookies typically describe a nut-based shortbread cookie sandwich, filled with berry jam.
This twist on the classic Linzer cookie adds gentle sweetness and texture with corn flour|Roxana Jullapat|December 2, 2020|Washington Post

The new gluten-free shortbread cookies should have been the most controversial part of the 2014 Girl Scout cookie campaign.
The Mothers Behind The Girl Scout Cookie Boycott|Emily Shire|February 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The chocolate mousse nearly finished, Hitz starts up on dessert item No. 2: pecan shortbread cookies.
A Hollywood Host Takes on QVC|Nicole LaPorte|November 29, 2009|DAILY BEAST
Mother made tea and gave them shortbread and was so a-flutter herself that she broke one of her company dishes.
Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays|Annie Roe Carr
This was followed by the handing round of oatcake, cheese, and whisky, and afterwards shortbread and more whisky.
Bygone Church Life in Scotland|Various
The following is the recipe of an old Ayrshire cook whose shortbread is always considered unsurpassed.
Paper-bag Cookery|Vera Serkoff
Or the shortbread—now there was something like shortbread, made after a recipe learned in Brabant!
The Dew of Their Youth|S. R. Crockett
He soon scorned crocus bulbs and even bread-crumbs, insisting on a diet of shortbread cake and nuts.
The Strange Story Book|Mrs. Andrew Lang

British Dictionary definitions for shortbread

shortbread

/ (ˈʃɔːtˌbrɛd) /

noun

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

Word Origin for shortbread

C19: from short (in the sense: crumbly)

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