Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A basket for serving bread.
- noun A geographic region serving as a principal source of grain supply.
- noun Slang The stomach.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A basket for holding or carrying bread; specifically, a tray, generally oval in shape, used for holding bread at table.
- noun The stomach.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Humorous The stomach.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
basket used for storing or carryingbread . - noun A
region wheregrain is grown. - noun humorous The
stomach .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an enlarged and muscular saclike organ of the alimentary canal; the principal organ of digestion
- noun a geographic region serving as the principal source of grain
- noun a basket for serving bread
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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When in this condition, Dominick suddenly delivered first a left and then a right hander into what is sometimes called the breadbasket, and stretched his adversary on the sand.
The Island Queen 1859
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During British colonial times, the Irrawaddy Delta was called the breadbasket of Southeast Asia.
News 2011
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How will we feed ourselves adequately if our breadbasket is a desert?
Weather beaten 2011
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Land reform, Africanization policies and brutal repression have reduced a country that was once described as the "breadbasket of Africa" to a basket case.
Will Travers: The "Wisdom" of Bob Parsons Will Travers 2011
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With a territory larger than France, one that is home to a third of the world's most fertile soil, Ukraine has often been referred to as the "breadbasket of Europe."
Ukraine's Future Is With the European Union Viktor Yanukovych 2011
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Once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, the Arghandab has become a killing field.
Archive 2010-01-01 membrain 2010
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Once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, the Arghandab has become a killing field.
Stryker soldiers say commanders failed them by defying Gen McChrystal's orders membrain 2010
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Malnutrition is now rampant in a country was once known as the breadbasket of Africa and political violence is widespread in a country that once held so much promise in a region facing so many challenges.
The failures of Mandela and the Vatican to speak out against Mugabe Stephen Retherford 2008
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Zimbabwe, on the other hand, used to be referred to as the breadbasket of Africa but is now hosting a starving population due largely to governmental mismanagement of the economy.
Archive 2008-04-01 Stephen Retherford 2008
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Malnutrition is now rampant in a country was once known as the breadbasket of Africa and political violence is widespread in a country that once held so much promise in a region facing so many challenges.
Archive 2008-06-01 Stephen Retherford 2008
yarb commented on the word breadbasket
The son of commerce, aghast at these sounds of melancholy import, reeled two steps backward, just as if some one had given him a blow in the breadbasket.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 6 ch. 1
September 20, 2008
bilby commented on the word breadbasket
"In what once was the breadbasket of civilization, Iraqi agriculture, ignored by the occupiers, is withering and the country is desertifying at a frightening pace under the pressure of a several-year-old drought."
- Tom Engelhardt, Biking Out of Iraq, tomdispatch.com, 13 August 2009.
August 14, 2009
madmouth commented on the word breadbasket
in the breadbasket, eh? this is one for the penis lists
also, gruesome news
August 14, 2009
bilby commented on the word breadbasket
Anatomically I map breadbasket to the lower stomach. Is my aim set too high?
August 14, 2009
madmouth commented on the word breadbasket
well, WeirdNet corroborates your ravings, so there goes another lascivious metaphor
August 14, 2009
reesetee commented on the word breadbasket
WeirdNet is...well, weird. Every dictionary I've checked says it's the stomach or abdomen--and that's how I've always heard it used.
August 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word breadbasket
Again, WordNet is NOT a dictionary. It seems to be saying this is a synonym for stomach, which is reasonable.
August 17, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word breadbasket
In this instance, here on Wordie, it sure resembles a dictionary because it offers definitions, and I think that's how most people think of it--again, just here on Wordie.
I've never heard it used as a synonym for stomach either. Hm.
August 17, 2009
reesetee commented on the word breadbasket
Here's OED on the word:
"slang. The stomach.
1753 FOOTE Englishm. Paris I. (1763) 15 Made the Soupe~maigre rumble in his Bread-basket. 1763 C. JOHNSTON Reverie I. 135 Hitting him a plump in the bread-basket. 1803 BRISTED Pedest. Tour I. 46 Our landlady, who was standing..with her mouth wide open, and her hands locked together..resting on her prominent breadbasket. 1850 KINGSLEY Alt. Locke xxxiii. (D.) ‘What do you think o' that now in a policeman's bread-basket?’"
The two other definitions listed are the literal ("A basket for holding bread, or in which bread is handed round.") and slang for a type of bomb (A large bomb containing smaller bombs; esp. in MOLOTOV bread-basket.).
August 17, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word breadbasket
It doesn't list the Midwest as the Breadbasket to the World, which is another usage I've heard.
But then, my brain doesn't seem to work anymore, so what do I know.
August 17, 2009