white bread
[Cf. MHG. wîȥbrot, G. weissbrot, LG. witbrôd, Du. wittebrood.]
Bread of a light colour, made from fine wheaten flour, as distinguished from brown bread.
| 13.. in Engl. Gilds (1870) 354 Euerych bakere of þe town..sholde make whitbred. c 1450 Customs of Malton in Engl. Misc. (Surtees) 62 No bakar y{supt} bakys qwhytte brede schall bake brown brede..nor he y{supt} bakys brown brede schall bake no qwhyte brede. 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. §34 Polerde wheate..is greatter corne, and wyll make whyte breed. 1598 Epulario D j b, Putting vnto it crums of Whitebread. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. Law 836 Thou, that from Heav'n thy daily White-bread hast. 1794 Stedman Surinam (1813) II. xxv. 248 The white bread, fruit, and Spanish wines..I received as a present. |
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▸ colloq. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.). Freq. depreciative. <white-bread adj. A (middle-class) white person; a person regarded as representative of the white middle-class (esp. with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes); entertainment or culture that is perceived as bland, unadventurous, or representing or reinforcing white middle-class values.
| 1981 N.Y. Times 1 Feb. 46/2 Vincent..is white bread in a three-piece suit. 1984 D. Mamet Glengarry Glen Ross ii. 58 You're scum, you're fucking white bread. 1991 A. D. Foster Cat-a-lyst i. 4 This dude was born a slave, right? So he gets freed,..joins the Union Army where he meets this white bread. 1996 Rolling Stone 18 Apr. 78/2 Soul Train finally gave his family a '70s TV alternative to the white bread of the Partridges. 1997 Chicago Tribune 14 Dec. iv. 12/4 This..grand finale..[is] strictly white bread; but it's white bread of a very wholesome and expensive kind. |