breadwinner

[ bred-win-er ]

noun

1. a person who earns a livelihood, especially one who also supports dependents.

breadwinner

/ ˈbrɛdˌwɪnə /

noun

1. a person supporting a family with his or her earnings

Derived Forms

• ˈbreadˌwinning, nounadjective

Other Words From

• breadwinning noun adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of breadwinner¹

First recorded in 1810–20; bread + winner

Example Sentences

Being dependent on male breadwinners is an important barrier in taking legal action.

From No Straight News

As primary breadwinners and spenders, their financial health is crucial to the overall economy.

From Digiday

The sociologist Robert Brannon measured seven factors in his 1984 “Masculinity Scale” study including items like “toughness,” “being the breadwinner” and “concealing emotions.”

From Ozy

At a time when there was no federal or state safety net, charitable organizations sprang into action to provide resources for families who had lost their breadwinners, or to take in the countless children left orphaned by the disease.

From No Straight News

There’s fierce pressure economically, to provide for one’s family, and socially, to conform with the expectation that men be hardworking and persistent breadwinners.

From Nautilus

Injuring the family breadwinner is the same as injuring yourself.

From The Daily Beast

Locking up the primary breadwinner can push a family from working-class to impoverished.

From The Daily Beast

Even though my dad was the breadwinner, he always had this joke that he changed my diaper once, so she had a lot on her plate.

From The Daily Beast

Four years ago, Omar became the primary breadwinner for his eight member family after his father passed away.

From The Daily Beast

Last month, a Pew study showed that 40 percent of U.S. households now have a woman as the leading breadwinner.

From The Daily Beast

There are many thousands of families in which the breadwinner does not earn more than ten dollars a week at best.

From Project Gutenberg

There was a great contrast between the genius and the breadwinner, the half-beast of burden.

From Project Gutenberg

The man was not above playing the spy, and he had of course a jealous interest in the fate of that chief breadwinner—his daughter.

From Project Gutenberg

Surely he is a stern moralist who would deny this satisfaction to the breadwinner of a family.

From Project Gutenberg

But she was not educated, and she was the chief breadwinner of the family, and her mother leant upon her so much.

From Project Gutenberg