sweetbread
Americannoun
-
Also called stomach sweetbread. the pancreas of an animal, especially a calf or a lamb, used for food.
-
Also called throat sweetbread. Also called neck sweetbread,. the thymus gland of such an animal, used for food.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sweetbread
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.
See Examples For:
These days, I poach the sweetbread in milk flavoured with beeswax and honey, then enclose it in a beeswax shell and leave it to mature.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 5, 2020
The food, by a former Spur Gastropub chef, goes beyond pretzels and burgers, showcasing lamb sweetbread and smoked mussels to pair with the artisanal brews.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2016
“It’s a free-for-all, and you get the fish mixed in with the sweetbread mixed in with octopus,” Mr. Colicchio said.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2015
The next evening: sweetbread tacos with maitake mushrooms at Empellón in the West Village.
From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2011
Sally was going to get permission to stay with us a little and one Thursday she came finally with a sack full of clothes and a paper bag of sweetbread her mama sent.
From "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros
![]()
Angel Cabrera in 2010 introduced an Argentine asado, well-salted cuts of meat including short ribs, blood sausage and sweetbreads cooked over an open flame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
There are definitely a few dishes we serve in the restaurant that are the best versions of those specific items anywhere in the world, such as the beef, scallops, sweetbreads and lobster.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2024
The pièce de résistance is sweetbreads staged with buttery roasted cauliflower florets, punched up with anchovies, and showered with earthy black truffles.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 24, 2023
Near the Polo Lounge hostess podium, menus have recently been on display from Christmas dinners in the distant past, when moguls and stars apparently washed down “creamed calf’s sweetbreads en casserole” with “frozen apple toddy.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2022
The serving men brought out a heron stuffed with figs, veal cutlets blanched with almond milk, creamed herring, candied onions, foul-smelling cheeses, plates of snails and sweetbreads, and a black swan in her plumage.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
![]()
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.