breakfast

UK/ˈbreɪkˌfɑːst/US/ˈbɹeɪkˌfæst/

nounA1Very common — you will meet it every day · #592 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: breakfasts

Breakfast is the first meal of the day. Have breakfast, breakfast in bed, a cooked breakfast.

The full English breakfast is the national institution, and continental breakfast is the lighter alternative. Breakfast is literally breaking the fast of the night, which is why the word means what it does in almost every European language. Note bed and breakfast; breakfast television; and the claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, which was promoted heavily by cereal manufacturers and is far less settled than it sounds.

Definitions of breakfast

1nounbreakfastThe first meal of the day.A1
“I never have time for breakfast, so I grab a banana on the way out.”
- Said"I never skip breakfast. Without it I'm useless until eleven."
- WrittenHotel breakfasts are the same the world over, and she loved every one.
- UsedCome down for breakfast between seven and ten; after that the kitchen closes.
- ContrastBreakfast, not lunch. Lunch can wait; breakfast is the meal that starts the day. lunch →
- Not thisToast at midnight is not breakfast. The word belongs to the morning, however late you wake.
- Exchange"What's for breakfast?""Eggs, if you make the coffee."
Patternhave / eat / skip breakfast · breakfast at + time · a cooked / light breakfast · breakfast time

breakfast is a meal.

Remember it

You fast all night while you sleep, and the first meal breaks the fast: break + fast.

hooks ontobreak fast

Where it comes from

The word is break plus fast, meaning to end the overnight fast. French déjeuner and Spanish desayuno are built the same way, and dinner comes from the same idea before it moved later in the day.

Old English
fæstenbryċe
Middle English
brekefast
English, today
breakfast

From Middle English brekefast, brekefaste, equivalent to break + fast literally, "to end the nightly fast", likely a variant of Old English fæstenbryċe, literally, "fast-breach". Cognate with Dutch breekvasten (“breakfast”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

breakfast in the wild

Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regions and traditions worldwide.
Breakfast
Bed and breakfast is also used to describe the level of catering included in a hotel's room prices, as opposed to room-only, half-board, or full-board.
Bed and breakfast
BBC Breakfast is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00 am.
BBC Breakfast
Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often a combination of Assam teas and Ceylon teas.
Irish breakfast tea
ITV Breakfast Limited (previously known as GMTV Limited) is the national ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
ITV Breakfast

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of breakfast

1nounbreakfastThe first meal of the day.A1

“I never have time for breakfast, so I grab a banana on the way out.”

Said"I never skip breakfast. Without it I'm useless until eleven."
WrittenHotel breakfasts are the same the world over, and she loved every one.
UsedCome down for breakfast between seven and ten; after that the kitchen closes.
ContrastBreakfast, not lunch. Lunch can wait; breakfast is the meal that starts the day. lunch →
Not thisToast at midnight is not breakfast. The word belongs to the morning, however late you wake.
Exchange"What's for breakfast?""Eggs, if you make the coffee."

Patternhave / eat / skip breakfast · breakfast at + time · a cooked / light breakfast · breakfast time

breakfast is a meal.