gingerbread

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a cake, biscuit, or other baked food flavored chiefly with ginger and often sweetened with molasses or honey

   The kitchen smelled of gingerbread baking for the winter festival.

2. 2
   noun

   something showy, sentimental, or attractive in appearance but lacking substance

   The critic dismissed the novel as decorative gingerbread with little serious thought behind it.

3. 3
   noun

   elaborate decorative woodwork or ornament, especially on a Victorian building

   Carved gingerbread edged the porch and gables of the old house.

From Middle English gyngebred, originally a borrowing through Old French for preserved or prepared ginger. As the old form became opaque, speakers reshaped its ending to bread, creating the modern-looking compound. Figurative senses compare flashy writing or architecture to decorated gingerbread.

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