DictionaryAI

breakfast

BRAYK-fast/ˈbɹeɪkˌfæst/BRAYK-fahst/ˈbreɪkˌfɑːst/

Pluralbreakfasts

Verbbreakfasts, breakfasting, breakfasted

5 meanings of breakfast

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning; also, a meal of the foods typically eaten then, such as eggs, toast, and bacon, whenever it is served.

    She rarely has time for breakfast on busy weekday mornings.

    A good breakfast set them up for the early start ahead.

    UsageUsually omit the article: have breakfast, eggs for breakfast. Use a for an individual meal, especially when describing it: a big breakfast.

    Note

    Its name is its history: Middle English brekefast, break plus fast, literally ending the night's fast. It works as a mass noun (at breakfast, time for breakfast) and as a count noun once it is described, as in Shakespeare's "a sorry breakfast for my Lord Protector."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Breakfast comes from Middle English brekefast. en.wiktionary.org
    • The components are break and fast, referring literally to ending the overnight fast. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quoted words occur in Shakespeare's writing. folger.edu
  2. 2
    eat morning mealverbintransitive
    To eat the meal taken in the morning.

    Guests may breakfast in the dining room between seven and nine.

    She breakfasted lightly on coffee and a slice of toast.

    UsageHave breakfast is far more usual in everyday speech. Use on for the food: breakfasted on coffee and toast.

    Note

    A verb with a long history: Matthew Prior writes "First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast" in a verse epistle dated 1689, and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) has "the moment he had breakfasted."

  3. 3
    wedding mealnouncountable
    The celebratory meal served to guests after a wedding, and sometimes after other solemn events such as a funeral.

    The wedding party sat down to a lavish breakfast once the vows were exchanged.

    The wedding breakfast was held in a hotel ballroom, and the speeches began after the main course.

    UsageMostly in the phrase wedding breakfast, even when the meal is served in the afternoon.

    Similarreception

    Note

    The word here names an occasion rather than an hour. The meal belongs to the ceremony it follows, so its timing is set by the wedding, not by the morning.

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    after fastingnouncountable
    A meal eaten after a period of fasting, now often a religious fast.
    The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.
    1684, John Dryden, “Amaryllis”
    Note

    A use from religious life that keeps the literal fast-breaking behind the everyday morning meal. Outside religion it has largely fallen away. Dryden could still write "The wolves will get a breakfast by my death" in 1684, and the time of day hardly matters there. It is simply a hungry creature's meal.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The religious sense preserves the literal meaning of breaking a fast. en.wiktionary.org
    • Dryden wrote the quoted line; it occurs in his paraphrase of Theocritus, spoken by the lover addressing Amaryllis. gutenberg.org
    • The quotation was published in 1684. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 5
    verbrare
    To provide someone with the morning meal.
    By seven-thirty she had breakfasted them, provided each with a packed lunch and Thermoses of coffee and tea
    1987, Anne McCaffrey, The Lady: A Tale of Ireland

Practice

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Origin

In Middle English the word was brekefast, made of break + fast and literally meaning to end the fast of the night. It is likely a variant of an Old English word, fæstenbryċe ("fast-breach"), and it is cognate with Dutch breekvasten.