Sweetbread
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food.
"SWEETBREAD SANDWICH: Cook sweetbreads until tender. When cold, remove skin, chop fine, season with salt and pepper, add one cup of finely chopped celery, and a dash of mayonnaise dressing; spread on thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Cover with another slice and garnish with an olive."
- 2 A sweetened type of bread.
- 3 edible glands of an animal wordnet
- 4 Any of various other glands used as food, including the parotid gland, sublingual glands, ovaries, and testicles.
Example
More examples"SWEETBREAD SANDWICH: Cook sweetbreads until tender. When cold, remove skin, chop fine, season with salt and pepper, add one cup of finely chopped celery, and a dash of mayonnaise dressing; spread on thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Cover with another slice and garnish with an olive."
Etymology
Apparently from sweet + bread, though the reason is not immediately evident. Possibly connected with Dutch zwezerik, whose etymology is also unclear.
Compound of sweet + bread.
More for "sweetbread"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.