bread and butter

See also: bread-and-butter

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Noun

bread and butter sg or pl (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) That which is central or fundamental, as to one's business, survival, or income; a staple or cornerstone.

   They will do some machining if you ask them, but sheet metal has always been their bread and butter.

   • 1890, N[athan] H[enry] Chamberlain, chapter I, in What’s the Matter? or, Our Tariff and Its Taxes, Boston, Mass.: De Wolfe, Fiske & Co. […], page 13:

     “There’s a big lockout at the foundry.” / “Lockout, what!” cried several. / “Sure as blazes, boys; just when the procession was passin’ I takes a squint at the big foundry door, and there I seen it writ, as clear as sunshine with a hole through it, on a bit o’ paper, that the ould foundry’s shut after Sathurday next, till further notice. Divil a bit less, but I’m shure them’s the very words.” / Silence fell on the crowd in the tobacco smoke. Most of them were foundry-men and had families. Their bread and butter were at stake.

   • 2017, Samantha X, Back on Top: Confessions of a High-Class Escort‎^[1], Hachette, →ISBN:

     Every escort has at least one or two regular clients; they are our bread and butter.

2. (idiomatic) The basic requirements of living, such as food and housing.
   • 1897, Annual Report, Volume One‎^[2], Ontario Department of Agriculture:

     What the nation, like the man, earns for itself by the honest labor of its people—when a man exerts himself to anything in an honorable calling—he is said to be earning his bread and butter, which includes his food and clothes and house-rent and all the rest of the thing [sic] he pays for. Now, if a man does not earn his bread and butter, he must either have it given to him as a gift, or steal it, as our forefathers nearly all did, honest, good people, too, as they were. ... It is worth while examining as to whether we earn all our bread and butter ... We ought to look after the bread and butter on our farms, and see that we eat the best bread and butter.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread,‎ butter.
   • 1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales:

     The bread-and-butter were good enough, but the ale poorish.

   • 1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “Laughing Gas”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, page 31:

     [I]n the centre stood an enormous table laid for tea—four cups and saucers, piles of bread and butter, crumpets, coconut cakes and a large plum cake with pink icing.

Derived terms

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

 

Related terms

• bread-and-butter

Interjection

bread and butter

1. Said when two people walking together are temporarily separated by an obstacle in order to indicate that they belong together.
   • 1989, Vergilius Ture Anselm Ferm, Lightning never strikes twice (if you own a feather bed):, page 238:

     Should this happen, retrace your steps to the point of separation if you wish to counteract the spell. Or, say the words "bread and butter."

   • 2003, William Safire, No Uncertain Terms, page 46:

     Peter Bartis, at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, explains, “Bread and butter go together, a sign of unity.” He finds a citation in the seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore: “If two persons are walking and they come to ... “When walkers were separated and did not use this phrase or bread and butter,” DARE adds, “it was believed they would have a quarrel.

   • 2011, James Hilliard, The Doll Show:

     "Bread and butter," the larger of the two women quipped as they moved past their Nancy-obstacle. "Bread and butter!".

   • 2011, D. E. Wittkower, Mr. Monk and Philosophy: The Curious Case of the Defective Detective:

     Before Trudy succumbed to her injuries from the bomb that destroyed her car, she uttered the words “bread and butter. Monk tells us that whenever he and Trudy had to part ways, even if only briefly, she would say bread and butter.

   • 2014, Wendy Davis, Forgetting to Be Afraid: A Memoir:

     If one of us kids was walking alongside him and we were separated by an object, whether a light pole or a person walking between us, my dad always muttered, “Bread and butter.”