break fast

Noun

breakfast (countable and uncountable, plural breakfasts)

1. The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.
   • You should put more protein in her breakfast so she will grow.
2. (broadly) A meal consisting of food normally eaten in the morning, which may typically include eggs, sausages, toast, bacon, etc.
   • We serve breakfast all day.
3. The celebratory meal served after a wedding (and occasionally after other solemnities e.g. a funeral).
4. (largely obsolete outside religion) A meal eaten after a period of (now often religious) fasting.
   • The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.1684, John Dryden, “Amaryllis”, in Miscellany Poems

See all 6 meanings of breakfast

Verb

break one's fast (third-person singular simple present breaks one's fast, present participle breaking one's fast, simple past broke one's fast, past participle broken one's fast)

1. (dated) To eat breakfast; to eat the first meal of the day after a night of not eating or to conclude any period of fasting by consuming food.
   • His servant placed before him a slice of toasted bread, with a glass of fair water, being the fare on which he usually broke his fast.1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 15, in The Antiquary—Volume II
2. To conclude any period of intentional fasting (usually for religious or medical reasons) by consuming food.