See Also: Gingerbread(medicine)
gingerbread(dictionary)
gingerbread(encyclopedia)
gingerbread(dictionary)
Old-Fashioned Gingerbread(recipes)
Old Fashioned Gingerbread(recipes)
Gingerbread Squares(recipes)
Gingerbread People(recipes)
Gingerbread Muffins(recipes)
Gingerbread Bears(recipes)

gingerbread (iou)



gingerbread noun & adjective. ME.
[Old French gingembras, -brat from medieval Latin gingibratum, -etum, from gingiber GINGER noun & adjective1 + -atum -ATE1; later assim. to ginger, bread.]
A. noun.
Orig., ginger, esp. preserved ginger. Later, cake made with treacle and flavoured with ginger (formerly made into fancy shapes which were often gilded). ME.
take the gilt off the gingerbread: see GILT noun2.
Something showy or insubstantial. Now esp. elaborate carving or gaudy decoration on a building. E17.
Caribbean Quarterly Small wooden houses with much architectural gingerbread.
Money. slang. Now rare or obsolete. E18.
Comb.: gingerbread man a flat gingerbread cake cut out in a shape resembling the outline of the human figure with a head, arms, and legs; gingerbread-palm = DOUM; gingerbread nut a small button-like gingerbread cake; gingerbread-plum (the fruit of) the gingerbread tree; gingerbread tree a W. African tree, Neocarya macrophylla (family Chrysobalanaceae), with an edible starchy fruit.
b. adjective. Resembling the figures made of (gilded) gingerbread; esp. designating the ornate carved and gilded scrollwork on a ship or a building; showy, elaborate, gaudy. M18.
Lady Bird Johnson A gingerbread bandstand decorated with..bunting.