- a person who earns a livelihood, especially one who also supports dependents.
Origin of breadwinner
Examples from the Web for breadwinning
The survey was conducted by Hannah Rosin, in connection with an article she was writing about “breadwinning wives.”Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men Turned Me Into a Caricature
September 29, 2012
In the intervals of his labours at breadwinning Wagner worked at his "Rienzi."Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas
W. J. Henderson
People are stupefied and deadened by their absorption in breadwinning.Mother
It was not just an ordinary change from one breadwinning place to another.Steel
Charles Rumford Walker
My ill-health, my isolation, baulked ambitions, and daily breadwinning all conspire to bring me down.The Journal of a Disappointed Man
Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion
He had been along all the pavements of Grub Street, perhaps the most exciting place of breadwinning known to the civilized man.Pipefuls
- a person supporting a family with his or her earnings
Word Origin and History for breadwinning
also bread-winner, "one who supplies a living for others, especially a family," 1821, from the noun bread (probably in a literal sense) + winner, from win (v.) in its sense of "struggle for, work at." Attested slightly earlier (1818) in sense "skill or art by which one makes a living." Not too far removed from the image at the root of lord (n.).