Breakfast Meaning
/ˈbɹɛk.fəst/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.
nounA meal consisting of food normally eaten in the morning, which may typically include eggs, sausages, toast, bacon, etc.
Sentence Examples
We made pancakes for breakfast.
What do you have for breakfast?
They were having breakfast when I arrived.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Every morning, she eats a healthy ____ with eggs and fruit before heading to work.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I usually have a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea for my ____ today.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A ſorry Breakfaſt for my Lord Protector."
— 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 125, column 2:
"His servant then flew like lightning and returned with a fine breakfast of wine and milk, and beautiful white bread and fruits, and such other things as little boys are fond of."
— 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 293:
"Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia’s mother was not a humourist."
— 1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
"The wolves will get a breakfast by my death."
— 1684, John Dryden, “Amaryllis”, in Miscellany Poems:
"“Oh, he set off the moment he had breakfasted![…]”"
— 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 12:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Every morning, she eats a healthy ____ with eggs and fruit before heading to work.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I usually have a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea for my ____ today.