How to Use bread-and-butter in a Sentence

bread-and-butter

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of bread-and-butternext
  • But they’re also used in the bread-and-butter of ATF’s work: solving gun crimes.
    — Ryan Lucas, NPR, 26 June 2024
  • Naturally, such a law could’ve put an end to Gittes’ line of detective work; investigating and photographing infidelities is his bread-and-butter.
    — J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 22 June 2024
  • But rewatching is the bread-and-butter of younger kids TV.
    — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 June 2023
  • The days of pure and simple bread-and-butter unionism in UTLA are over.
    — Howard Blumestaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Black said VanDyke had little appetite for the bread-and-butter state court cases that came with the job.
    — Andy Kroll, ProPublica, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Monken was not about to use any of his bread-and-butter looks in a meaningless contest.
    — Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 13 Aug. 2023
  • Anti-lock brakes are optional on all DXs and on the bread-and-butter fourcylinder LX.
    — Steven Cole Smith, Car and Driver, 13 July 2023
  • The issue occupies a key nexus where the bread-and-butter concerns of workers meet the larger goals of social justice.
    — Jim Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2024
  • This bold new version of fried bologna uses Creole mustard and bread-and-butter pickle chips.
    — Southern Living Editors, Southern Living, 1 Sep. 2023
  • And his best routes, flare screens and intermediate digs, are the bread-and-butter concepts of a Shanahan offense.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2024
  • Some people may have viewed this as a one-off type of thing as opposed to working with a local guy who's going to be here and is going to be their bread-and-butter.
    — Tom Sissom, Arkansas Online, 29 Aug. 2023
  • And because the return-to-office debate is still going strong, the office buildings and such that lots of local banks fund as their bread-and-butter are worth less.
    — Melvin Backman, Quartz, 7 Mar. 2024
  • As Luisa aptly points out: The rise in alt exec ownership is, of course, in part due to the stunning returns alt firms have made in their bread-and-butter businesses over the past 25 years.
    — Anne Sraders, Fortune, 17 July 2023
  • Regional banks are facing the prospect of a slowdown in one of their bread-and-butter offerings, business lending.
    — Telis Demos, WSJ, 24 Oct. 2023
  • But the shipyard recently launched a vessel that’s very different from its bread-and-butter designs—a series of superyachts.
    — Christopher King, Robb Report, 2 Jan. 2024
  • The store plans to expand its hours, building off what has thus far been its bread-and-butter: speaking events, including one last week with local author Lauren Markham, who is promoting a new book.
    — Shomik Mukherjee, The Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2024
  • As their name suggests, Full Circle’s bread-and-butter is restoring run-down historic properties to their full potential, and the show focuses on the house and its history.
    — Lauren Daley, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Apr. 2023
  • In a speech later in the day to a supportive labor group in Washington, Mr. Biden focused more on bread-and-butter issues, boasting of his record of creating jobs and financing new roads and bridges.
    — Peter Baker, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • The collection crescendoed passionately into the evening with Saab’s bread-and-butter va-va-voom silhouettes.
    — Thomas Adamson, ajc, 4 Mar. 2023
  • Women’s magazines did and still do provide more journalism than just fashion, beauty and lifestyle advice, but this sort of content was bread-and-butter for so many.
    — Sapna Maheshwari, New York Times, 5 Aug. 2023
  • Stephenson’s bread-and-butter is analyzing hotel occupancy data to get a sense as to whether the events put more heads in beds than what’s typically seen.
    — Alicia Wallace, CNN, 10 Feb. 2024
  • The union is focusing on bread-and-butter issues such as pay and benefits as well as pushing for measures that protect workers from changes brought about by new technology.
    — Aaron Gregg, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023
  • For most of them, rationalizing our immigration system is not a bread-and-butter issue.
    — Marcela Valdes, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2023
  • Analysts say the reaction was overblown, and that European banks are still benefiting from rate rises and better profits from their bread-and-butter lending.
    — Margot Patrick, WSJ, 10 Mar. 2023
  • This bargain may not sit well with domestic constituencies in partner countries more concerned about bread-and-butter issues than geopolitics.
    — Gary Hufbauer, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2022
  • Such ideas were once the bread-and-butter of Republican establishment orthodoxy but have fallen out of a favor as the party has embraced Trump’s isolationist and populist views.
    — Jill Colvin, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2023
  • Comcast’s bread-and-butter broadband Internet business has seen softness in recent quarters.
    — Trefis Team, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023
  • But that kind of work won't start happening before the user base is there, and the user base won't be there until there are (1) concrete benefits to using Arm hardware and (2) broad compatibility for bread-and-butter apps like Chrome.
    — Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica, 24 Apr. 2024
  • Salman Khurshid, a Congress veteran, worried that the party has strayed from bread-and-butter political strategy.
    — Samanth Subramanian Vikas Adam Tanya Pérez Zachary Mouton, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
  • Then there is the upstart Taiwan People’s Party, which has sought to tap into disillusionment with the two dominant parties by focusing on bread-and-butter issues.
    — Amy Qin, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2024
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bread and butter

2 of 2 noun
  • Casual clothing has always been the company's bread and butter.
  • Last online match of the year was a success, now back to our bread and butter for the Lans!
    — Sean Collins, Dallas News, 25 July 2021
  • One of my favorite bakes is making my croissant bread and butter pudding.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 2 Aug. 2021
  • This skill earned him his bread and butter and paved the path for his upcoming business endeavors.
    — Brianna Kamienski, USA TODAY, 28 June 2024
  • Corporate events, the company’s bread and butter, dried up overnight.
    — Lisette Voytko, Forbes, 7 July 2021
  • The patio, which is packed from summer to summer, has always been Stickmen’s bread and butter.
    — oregonlive, 27 Aug. 2021
  • Housemade chicken tenders tossed in a housemade hot sauce, topped with bread and butter pickles and drizzled with creamy ranch, served on a double split bun.
    — Cheryl V. Jackson, The Indianapolis Star, 2 Sep. 2021
  • Those are the bread and butter of Thrasio, which snaps up promising ones to take their marketing and operations to the next level.
    — Chris Taylor, Fortune, 8 July 2021
  • And nobody seems sure about the long-term viability of Hollywood’s bread and butter — the feature film made for the big screen.
    — Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2024
  • Lavish musical set-pieces, this film’s bread and butter, fail to immerse or transport audiences as intended.
    — Courtney Howard, Variety, 1 Sep. 2021
  • Located in a smaller neighborhood, Pomeroy said there's less foot traffic during the week, so weekends are their bread and butter.
    — Leah Asmelash, CNN, 1 July 2021
  • Real estate may be his bread and butter, but marketing has always captivated Hague.
    — Georgann Yara, The Arizona Republic, 6 Aug. 2021
  • But nevertheless, his bread and butter would remain character roles in a long string of movies and TV shows over the subsequent decades.
    — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 5 July 2024
  • Richardson became the leader of demonstrations over bread and butter economic issues like jobs, health care access and sufficient housing.
    — Brian Witte, Anchorage Daily News, 17 July 2021
  • The infrastructure bill is a sweeping public works and jobs bill with something for everyone, the type of pork barrel measure that used to be the bread and butter of Congress.
    — New York Times, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Such policies are the bread and butter of reducing vulnerability for the uncertainties ahead.
    — Roger Pielke, WSJ, 16 July 2021
  • Cadence13’s bread and butter remains in traditional episodic podcast series.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 26 Aug. 2021
  • Finally, a special mention must be made for the bread and butter – the restaurant's sourdough is nine years in the making and comes with smoked and salty butters that in any other restaurant would be the absolute highlight.
    — Jamie Timson, The Week Uk, theweek, 22 Mar. 2024
  • These fringe mushers are the bread and butter of the Yukon Quest, or used to be.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 21 May 2022
  • But the other side to that is that that’s still their bread and butter.
    — Vulture, 14 July 2023
  • Still, the waiter returned to push the bread and butter.
    — Noah Lederman, Bon Appétit, 9 June 2022
  • Sight gags like that are Life in the Dreamhouse’s bread and butter.
    — Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
  • And live albums are like the bread and butter of the Gospel/worship genre.
    — Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2024
  • Sampling has been your bread and butter from the start.
    — Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 4 Mar. 2024
  • The twinkling eyes, the aquiline nose, the trademark goatee limned in bits of bread and butter.
    — Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan. 2022
  • Politicians will force you to choose—that’s their bread and butter.
    — Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 8 Feb. 2024
  • Consider this work boot to be the bread and butter of men’s work boots.
    — John Thompson, Men's Health, 9 Dec. 2022
  • But 40 years in, up-and-coming groups remain the show’s bread and butter.
    — Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2023
  • Serve the stew with plenty of dark country bread and butter.
    — Jonathan Miles, Field & Stream, 15 Nov. 2023
  • All those things are the bread and butter of good old-fashioned drama.
    — Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bread-and-butter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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