Word.ws English Dictionary

break bread

break bread verb: to eat a meal, especially to eat a shared meal with friends, family, guests, etc.; to be in fellowship with others by eating with them.

Verb

break bread (third-person singular simple present breaks bread, present participle breaking bread, simple past broke bread, past participle broken bread)

  1. To eat a meal, especially to eat a shared meal with friends, family, guests, etc.; to be in fellowship with others by eating with them.
    • The knight swore he would not break bread in the castle again until he received reparation for the insult.
    • And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 20:7
  2. To take part in Holy Communion.
    • In baptism we make covenant; in communion we renew covenant week by week. . . . After offering prayers of thanksgiving, together we break bread and drink from the cup.1979, Ronald E. Osborn, The Faith We Affirm, →ISBN, page 61

Forms of break bread

third-person singular presentbreaks bread
present participlebreaking bread
pastbroke bread
past participlebroken bread

Origin of break bread

Inherited from Middle English breken bred; under medieval conditions, guests brought their own knives worn with them, which were their daggers they hunted and gathered with, then only fit to cut meat. From the expression “break bread with friends” the ellipsis “break bread” implying community developed.

Words formed from break bread

  • breaking of bread

Questions about break bread

What does break bread mean?
Break bread means to eat a meal, especially to eat a shared meal with friends, family, guests, etc.; to be in fellowship with others by eating with them.
What part of speech is break bread?
Break bread is a verb.
What is the past tense of break bread?
The past tense of break bread is broke bread.

Words near break bread in the dictionary

  1. break apart
  2. break ass
  3. break away
  4. break back
  5. break bad
  6. break bread
  7. break bulk
  8. break camp
  9. break character
  10. break clause
  11. break clauses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break bread (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-break bread.wav.

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