breakfast

breakfast — noun

1. the meal you have after waking up, before the main part of your day

1.nounA1
Definition

the meal you have after waking up, before the main part of your day

Example

Priya made eggs and tea for breakfast before school.

collocation: for breakfast

We ate breakfast on the hotel roof at sunrise.

Common collocations
  • have breakfast
  • eat breakfast
  • skip breakfast
  • big breakfast
Synonyms
  • morning meal

    a descriptive phrase, not the usual everyday word

  • meal

    a broad word for any time you eat, not only the morning

Usage Note

Often used after have, eat, skip, or make. In everyday English, people usually say have breakfast rather than use breakfast as a verb.

Common Mistakes

I took my breakfast at 7.
I had breakfast at 7.
'have breakfast' is the usual everyday phrase.
Idioms

a dog’s breakfast/dinner

idiom

Something that is done very poorly or in a messy way.

Maya made a dog's breakfast of her science project.

Did Brian really make a dog's dinner of that report?

breakfast — verb

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Breakfast is the meal linked to the start of the day, usually after you wake up. Meal is much wider and can mean breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any other time you eat. Brunch is later than breakfast and often larger, combining ideas from breakfast and lunch. Lunch is the middle-of-the-day meal, so it points to a different time. Snack is smaller and lighter than a main meal, and it does not suggest morning. Compare: We had breakfast before school. We had brunch at eleven on Sunday.

meal ↗brunchlunch ↗snack ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • breakfast table
  • breakfast menu
  • breakfast room

Adverbs

Phrases

  • have breakfast
  • eat breakfast
  • make breakfast
  • skip breakfast
  • breakfast in bed

Prepositions

  • for breakfast
  • at breakfast
  • over breakfast
  • on

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Breakfast is made from break and fast. It first meant ending the time when you had not eaten during the night, and from that idea it came to mean the first meal after you wake up.