Bread

noun BREAD brɛd

Also spelled bred, bread

Besides the loaf, 'bread' is common slang for money — the means of living. 'A chase mi bread' means I'm out earning money, hustling to get by, and to have or lack bread is to have or lack the cash that keeps life going. The image casts money as one's daily sustenance, the very thing that puts food on the table, just as in the English slang 'bread', and it sits with 'corn', 'dunny', and 'cheddar' in the vocabulary of cash, work, and survival that runs through so much Jamaican talk and song.

  • Mi haffi go chase mi bread.

    I have to go earn my money.

  • Nuh mek nobody tek yuh bread.

    Don't let anyone take your money.

  • Him a hustle fi a likkle bread.

    He's hustling for a little money.

The money sense (as in the wider English slang 'bread') pictures money as one's daily sustenance, like the bread that keeps you.

Everyday for both the loaf and 'money'. Compare 'corn', 'eat a food'.