bread-and-butter
1 of 2adjective
bread-and-but·ter ˈbred-ən(d)-ˈbə-tər 
1
a
: being as basic as the earning of one's livelihood
bread-and-butter issues
b(1)
: reliable
our bread-and-butter repertoire
(2)
: dependable as a source of income
a company's bread-and-butter products
2
: sent or given as thanks for hospitality
a bread-and-butter letter
bread and butter
2 of 2noun
: a means of sustenance or livelihood
Example Sentences
Noun Casual clothing has always been the company's bread and butter.
Recent Examples on the Web
Ana Codallo, Forbes, 4 Aug. 2022 But selling devices, mostly PCs, remains Lenovo’s bread and butter, accounting for around 84% of its sales. Jacky Wong, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2022 The Accord may no longer be Honda's bread and butter—that would be the CR-V crossover nowadays—but the perennially 10Best-winning sedan is set to enter a new generation soon. Joey Capparella, Car and Driver, 26 July 2022 But this performance is for MAGA World, the source of Bannon’s bread and butter, and for the purpose of flooding the media with Bannon’s narrative in order to introduce doubt and chaos ahead of the appeals process. Adele M. Stan, The New Republic, 21 July 2022 Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog and Alanah Pearce chimed in, where their studio is the home of GOTY winner God of War, and its upcoming sequel, where massive single player hits have been Sony’s bread and butter for generations now. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 1 July 2022 The menu isn’t posted, but Kin’s bread and butter is Southern comfort. Lauren Daley, BostonGlobe.com, 16 June 2022 Similarly, creating new user accounts or deleting them out of multiple systems is just the bread and butter of the IT department. Kevin Korte, Forbes, 6 July 2022 He is best known for painting Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, but his bread and butter are immense paintings reimagining Western art traditions through the use of contemporary Black sitters. Vogue, 1 June 2022 See More
Noun
For example, the bread and butter of Key Opinion Leaders is data, and the data is massive—on the order of hundreds of terabytes. Ana Codallo, Forbes, 4 Aug. 2022 But selling devices, mostly PCs, remains Lenovo’s bread and butter, accounting for around 84% of its sales. Jacky Wong, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2022 The Accord may no longer be Honda's bread and butter—that would be the CR-V crossover nowadays—but the perennially 10Best-winning sedan is set to enter a new generation soon. Joey Capparella, Car and Driver, 26 July 2022 But this performance is for MAGA World, the source of Bannon’s bread and butter, and for the purpose of flooding the media with Bannon’s narrative in order to introduce doubt and chaos ahead of the appeals process. Adele M. Stan, The New Republic, 21 July 2022 Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog and Alanah Pearce chimed in, where their studio is the home of GOTY winner God of War, and its upcoming sequel, where massive single player hits have been Sony’s bread and butter for generations now. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 1 July 2022 The menu isn’t posted, but Kin’s bread and butter is Southern comfort. Lauren Daley, BostonGlobe.com, 16 June 2022 Similarly, creating new user accounts or deleting them out of multiple systems is just the bread and butter of the IT department. Kevin Korte, Forbes, 6 July 2022 He is best known for painting Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, but his bread and butter are immense paintings reimagining Western art traditions through the use of contemporary Black sitters. Vogue, 1 June 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
Adjective
circa 1837, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Noun
1770, in the meaning defined above