Also 5 brekfast, 6 breke-, breck-, 6–7 breakefast. [f. BREAK v. 29 c + FAST.]
1. That with which a person breaks his fast in the morning; the first meal of the day.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 224. Exspensys in brekfast, xj. d.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., xxii. Pream., Ye were at your brekefast.
1528. More, Heresyes, IV. Wks. 251/1. That men shoulde go to masse as well after sowper as before brekefast.
1594. Lady Russell, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 233. III. 40. Becawse I here your Lordship meaneth to be gon early in the morning, I am bowld to send your pale thin cheecks a comfortable little breckfast.
1762. Goldsm., Nash, 46. People of fashion make public breakfasts at the assembly-houses.
1793. Cowper, Lett., 25 April. My only time for study is now before breakfast.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, III. xii. Dinners convivial and political … Breakfasts professional and critical.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 27. 207. My assistants were preparing breakfast.
2. Occas. in wider sense: That which puts an end to a fast, a meal.
1526. Tindale, Heb. xii. 16. Esau which for one breakfast solde his right.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., V. iv. 34. I would haue beene a break-fast to the Beast.
1684. Dryden, Theocritus Idyl, iii. (J.). The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.
3. Comb. and Attrib., as breakfast-bell, † -board, -parlour, -party, -room, -stall, -table, -time; breakfast-set, the crockery in use at breakfast.
1842. T. Martin, My Namesake, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec., 652/2. The (breakfast-bell had sounded for some time.
1544. Privy Purse Exp. P’cess Mary (Madden), 149. Item paid for mending the *Brekefaste-borde and fyre-Shovell.
1834. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. VI. vii. 365. In remote streets, men are drinking *breakfast-coffee.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Northang. Ab. (1833), II. vii. 142. She found her way to the *breakfast-parlour.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc. (1886), I. 298. The hard geniality of some clever college-tutor of stiff manners, entertaining undergraduates at an official *breakfast party.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, VII. 404. A charming *breakfast-room which looks to the Tweed.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Northang. Ab. (1833), II. vii. 143. The elegance of the *breakfast set.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, 144/1. A well-spread *breakfast-table.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 276. Even before *breakfast-time.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xlv. He had ridden the whole day since breakfast-time.
