bread and butter

bread and butter

Meaning

• to indicate what a person earns or earns for
• the reason for someone to make money
• someone's livelihood.
• often used as a synonym for the earnings of a person

Example Sentences

1. The person depends on you for his bread and butter, how can you be so thoughtless?
2. I am counting on this job for my bread and butter.
3. His bread and butter come entirely from the pension amount.
4. You have to earn your own bread and butter.
5. One does almost anything to earn their bread and butter in this cold-hearted world.
6. How will you earn your bread and butter if you are never going to be serious about taking a job?
7. Teaching classic music to young boys and girls is her bread and butter.

Origin

The phrase is speculated to be from the Middle Ages in origin since it is believed that buttered bread as a food course has been on-going since then. In the European and England regions, the peasants could only afford this one course as their entire meal and would have it with soup. The origin is in-keeping with this story where people started earning in order to earn their bread and butter. It was considered the basic after which was earned, one could purchase more items for themselves and their household.