Word.ws English Dictionary

putting butter on one's bread

putting butter on one's bread is the present participle and gerund of put butter on one's bread.

Meaning of put butter on one's bread

Verb

put butter on one's bread (third-person singular simple present puts butter on one's bread, present participle putting butter on one's bread, simple past and past participle put butter on one's bread)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To earn money.
    • "Well, it won't put butter on our bread," said another.1933, Ishbel Ross, Marriage in Gotham, page 71
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, butter, bread.

Questions about putting butter on one's bread

What is putting butter on one's bread the present participle and gerund of?
Putting butter on one's bread is the present participle and gerund of put butter on one's bread.

Words near putting butter on one's bread in the dictionary

  1. putting asunder
  2. putting away
  3. putting back
  4. putting before
  5. putting bread on the table
  6. putting butter on one's bread
  7. putting by
  8. putting case
  9. putting daylight between oneself and someone
  10. putting down
  11. putting down as

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting butter on one's bread (page history and authors); put butter on one's 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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