Word.ws English Dictionary

below the breadline

below the breadline is the alternative form of on the breadline.

Meaning of on the breadline

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In a situation of extreme poverty; relying on food donations or having only enough to survive.
    • She wasn't on the breadline exactly, but she didn't have an awful lot of spare cash to throw around, and she always, always lived within her means.2021 February 25, Lilac Mills, Sunset on the Square: Escape on a Spanish Holiday with this Heartwarming Love Story, London: Canelo, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN

Questions about below the breadline

What is below the breadline the alternative form of?
Below the breadline is the alternative form of on the breadline.

Words near below the breadline in the dictionary

  1. below decks
  2. below ground
  3. below par
  4. below stairs
  5. below the belt
  6. below the breadline
  7. below the fold
  8. below the gangway
  9. below the law
  10. below the line
  11. below the mahogany

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: below the breadline (page history and authors); on the breadline (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “below the breadline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/below_the_breadline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.