bread-and-butter

See also: bread and butter

English

Etymology

Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.

Adjective

bread-and-butter (comparative more bread-and-butter, superlative most bread-and-butter)

1. Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living.
   • 2015, Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder, page 34:

     These road warrior plays were fronted by former semistars like Forrest Tucker or Hugh O'Brian, who had had their bread-and-butter TV shows cancelled. The job could pay $3,000 to $5,000 a week […]

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread,‎ and,‎ butter.

   bread-and-butter pudding

Interjection

bread-and-butter

1. (archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck
2. (archaic) A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree

Related terms

• bread-and-butter issue
• bread-and-butter letter
• bread-and-butter note
• bread-and-butter pickle
• bread-and-butter plate
• bread-and-butter pudding