whitebread
whitebread Lexical Profile
whitebread Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
North American Bland, conventional, and unadventurous, especially in a way associated with mainstream white middle-class culture.
"The band's early albums were criticized for offering a safe, whitebread version of rhythm and blues."
• noun
North American A bland, conventional, middle-class white person, or the stereotypical culture and lifestyle associated with such people.
"He grew up in a sheltered suburb surrounded by middle-American whitebread."
Nonstandard closed-compound spelling of white bread (bread made from wheat flour from which the bran and germ have been removed).
"She packed a simple sandwich made with peanut butter and store-bought whitebread."
Word Nuance & Usage
When written as a single word or hyphenated ('whitebread' or 'white-bread'), the term is used figuratively and often disparagingly to describe bland, conventional middle-class culture, whereas the open compound 'white bread' refers literally to the baked food product.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in mid-20th-century American slang as a figurative extension of 'white bread', associating mass-produced, bleached commercial loaves with the perceived blandness and conformity of mainstream white middle-class suburbia.