breakfast

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to eat an early morning meal

   We breakfast at seven.

2. 2
   verb

   to provide the first meal of the day

   The hotel breakfasts all its occupants.

3. 3
   noun

   The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.

   You should put more protein in her breakfast so she will grow.

4. 4
   noun

   A meal consisting of food normally eaten in the morning, which may typically include eggs, sausages, toast, bacon, etc.

   We serve breakfast all day.

5. 5
   noun

   A meal eaten after a period of (now often religious) fasting.

   The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.

6. 6
   verb

   To eat the morning meal.

   May 14, 1689, Matthew Prior, epistle to Fleetwood Shephard Esq. First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast.

7. 7
   verb

   To serve breakfast to.

   By seven-thirty she had breakfasted them, provided each with a packed lunch and Thermoses of coffee and tea

8. 8
   noun

   the first meal of the day (usually in the morning)

Etymology

From Middle English brekefast, brekefaste, equivalent to break + fast (literally, "to end the nightly fast"), likely a variant of Old English fæstenbryċe, (literally, "fast-breach"). Cognate with Dutch breekvasten (“breakfast”).