▪ I. breakfast, n.
(ˈbrɛkfəst)
Also 5 brekfast, 6 breke-, breck-, 6–7 breakefast.
[f. break v. 29 c + fast.]
1. That with which a person breaks his fast in the morning; the first meal of the day.
| 1463 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 224 Exspensys in brekfast, xj. d. 1491 Act 7 Hen. VII, xxii. Pream., Ye were at your brekefast. 1528 More Heresyes iv. Wks. 251/1 That men shoulde go to masse as well after sowper as before brekefast. 1594 Lady Russell in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 233 III. 40 Becawse I here your Lordship meaneth to be gon early in the morning, I am bowld to send your pale thin cheecks a comfortable little breckfast. 1762 Goldsm. Nash 46 People of fashion make public breakfasts at the assembly-houses. 1793 Cowper Lett. 25 Apr., My only time for study is now before breakfast. 1819 Shelley Peter Bell Third iii. xii, Dinners convivial and political..Breakfasts professional and critical. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §27. 207 My assistants were preparing breakfast. |
2. a. Occas. in wider sense: That which puts an end to a fast, a meal.
| 1526 Tindale Heb. xii. 16 Esau which for one breakfast solde his right. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 34, I would haue beene a break-fast to the Beast. a 1700 Dryden (J.) The wolves will get a breakfast by my death. |
b. = wedding-
breakfast.
| 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xv. 132 We'll have a wedding, Briggs, and you shall make the breakfast, and be a brides' maid. 1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iv. 167 I'm off for my honeymoon... Oh don't say that, Violet. And no wedding, no breakfast. |
3. Comb. and
attrib., as
breakfast-bell,
† breakfast-board,
breakfast-china,
breakfast-cloth,
breakfast-cup,
breakfast-food,
breakfast-hour,
breakfast-nook,
breakfast-parlour,
breakfast-party,
breakfast-room,
breakfast-service,
breakfast-stall,
breakfast-table,
breakfast things,
breakfast-time,
breakfast-tray;
breakfast-set, the crockery in use at breakfast;
breakfast television, TV orig. U.S., television broadcasting in the morning,
esp. at or around breakfast time;
breakfast-time television, TV orig. U.S. = breakfast television above.
| 1842 T. Martin in Fraser's Mag. Dec., The *breakfast-bell had sounded. |
| 1544 Privy Purse Exp. P'cess Mary (Madden) 149 Item paid..for mending the *Brekefaste-borde and fyre-Shovell. |
| 1811 Jane Austen Sense & Sens. I. ii. 26 The set of *breakfast china is twice as handsome as what belongs to this house. 1929 E. Bowen Joining Charles 124 Breakfast-china..with a red rim. |
| 1778 G. L. Way Learning at Loss I. 107 Dipping the Corner of the *Breakfast Cloth into his Tea-cup. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. xxv. 270 A clean breakfast-cloth. |
| 1834 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. vi. vii. 365 In remote streets, men are drinking *breakfast-coffee. |
| 1762 Boswell London Jrnl. 12 Dec. (1950) 81, I ordered some large *breakfast cups. 1911 A. Bennett Hilda Lessways i. v. 47 Her big breakfast-cup full of steaming tea. |
| 1898 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Feb. 28/1 (Advt.), Ralston Health Club *Breakfast Food. 1941 M. Allingham Traitor's Purse vii. 75 The familiar cartons of breakfast food. |
| 1811 L. M. Hawkins Countess & Gertrude I. v. 80 An unforeseen indisposition..kept her ladyship in almost hopeless doubt during her *breakfast-hour. 1876 C. M. Yonge Womankind xiii. 92 It is very unfortunate that most people's breakfast hour coincides with this only period permitted for religious teaching. |
| 1931 Kansas City Times 9 Oct., A cute little room called the *breakfast nook. 1958 J. Cannan And be a Villain iii. 50 You can come into my kitchen..there's a breakfast nook, as they calls it in the books. |
| 1802 C. Wilmot Let. 14 Feb. in Irish Peer (1920) 43 If ‘Italy is the Garden of Europe’,..Scotland the *breakfast Parlour, and so on, I really think one may say France is the ‘Drawing-room’. c 1815 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1833) II. vii. 142 She found her way to the breakfast-parlour. |
| 1814 ― Mansf. Park II. x. 232 Sir Thomas asked Crawford to join the early *breakfast party. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. (1886) I. 298 The hard geniality of some clever college-tutor of stiff manners, entertaining undergraduates at an official breakfast party. |
| 1732 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough Let. 4 July (1943) 36 The rooms I mean, is that where the red velvet bed stands and the room next to it, which they call the *breakfast room. 1837 Lockhart Scott VII. 404 A charming breakfast-room which looks to the Tweed. |
| 1838 J. Romilly Camb. Diary 16 Oct. (1967) 156 She ordered a beautiful *breakf. service for him. 1855 Trollope Warden viii. 122 The breakfast-service on the table was equally costly and equally plain. 1939 A. Thirkell Before Lunch ix. 249, I shall give you a breakfast service and a very large Persian cat. |
| c 1815 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1833) II. vii. 143 The elegance of the *breakfast set. |
| 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xlvii. 449 A *breakfast-stall at a street corner. |
| 1762 T. Chippendale Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director (ed. 3) 8 Two Designs of *Breakfast-Tables. One hath a Stretching-Rail...The other hath a Shelf. a 1817 Jane Austen Northanger Abb. (1818) II. v. 67 Never in her life before had she beheld half such variety on a breakfast-table. 1838 Dickens O. Twist 144/1 A well-spread breakfast-table. |
| 1971 Life 10 Dec. 68/2, I felt I had performed reasonably well on midnight radio and *breakfast television from Boston to San Francisco. 1984 S. Townsend Growing Pains A. Mole 144 At 6.25 I woke my parents up by shouting loudly up the stairs that Breakfast Television was starting. |
| 1980 Economist 12 July 93/3 Channel Four..is meant to start then [sc. in 1982] (so too is *Breakfast TV, but its revenue is likely to be less than 1% of total TV advertising). 1987 Financial Times (Weekend Suppl.) 21 Feb. p. xviii/8 There was nothing to divert me except Breakfast TV. |
| 1980 Economist 26 Jan. 18 What the IBA wants from contenders is profitability. The only major innovation it is encouraging is national *breakfast-time television. |
| 1952 N.Y. Times 20 Jan. ii. 11/1 *Breakfast-time TV has been a commercial success in some cities outside of New York. 1987 Maclean's Mag. 13 Apr. 46 She describes the England around her with Dickensian sweep: the New Right, the Falklands War, new technology, breakfast-time TV. |
| 1841 ‘M. A. Titmarsh’ in Britannia 15 May 315/2 All the *breakfast things begin to clatter. 1960 ‘J. Bell’ Wellknown Face iv. 37 She had moved both cups off the little tray to make room for her breakfast things. |
| 1599 Lady M. Hoby Diary 25 Sept. (1930) 74 After I had praied I walked in the garden tell *break fast time. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 276 Even before breakfast-time. 1815 Scott Guy M. xlv, He had ridden the whole day since breakfast-time. |
| 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. (1866) II. xxi. 210 Mrs. Gibson breakfasted in bed... Her own private letters always went up on her *breakfast-tray. 1893 E. F. Benson Dodo (ed. 3) I. iv. 82 He met a footman carrying a breakfast-tray. |
▸
breakfast bar (a) orig. U.S. a raised counter in a home kitchen;
(b) a café where breakfast is sold at a counter; (also) a breakfast buffet;
(c) orig. U.S. a prepackaged food similar in size and shape to a chocolate bar, typically made of cereal and fruit, and eaten instead of a sit-down breakfast.
| 1934 Washington Post 12 Mar. 11/7 The breakfast nook..has gone modern and become a *breakfast bar... High stools..take the place of chairs. 1963 Times 22 Jan. 7/7 Some motels allow a coffee percolator but draw the line at electric frying pans for bacon and eggs, for many have their own breakfast bars. 1975 Chicago Tribune 11 May (Mag. section) 36 (advt.) New Carnation breakfast bar is the delicious way to enjoy instant breakfast nourishment—anytime! 1980 Times 20 Nov. 8/4 There is fresh papaya, pineapple and melon on the hotel breakfast bar. 1985 T. Blackwell & J. Seabrook World Still to Win vii. 139 Ceramic-tiled kitchens with breakfast bars, open staircases and louvred walk-in wardrobes. 1996 N.Z. News UK 28 Feb. 8/2 After a stint flipping eggs at a breakfast bar in Queenstown, the former Invercargill mayor is back. 2001 Daily Tel. 23 Oct. 7/8 In a survey of 19 cereal bars sold as ‘breakfast bars’, all had more fat and sugar than a bowl of Rice Crispies. |
▪ II. breakfast, v. (
ˈbrɛkfəst)
[f. prec.] 1. intr. To break one's fast (see
break v. 29 c); to take the first meal of the day.
| 1679 E. Everard Popish Plot 11 After break-fasting peaceably. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 200 ¶6 A back room, where he always breakfasted when he had not great company. 1883 Froude Short Stud. IV. ii. ii. 181 If an undergraduate now and then breakfasted with his tutor, the undergraduate was shy. |
2. trans. To provide with breakfast, entertain at breakfast.
| 1793 T. Jefferson Writ. IV. 83 They will breakfast you. 1885 M. Pattison Mem. 50, I was breakfasted by Copleston. |