bread-and-butter

Reflecting that bread and butter are archetypally basic foodstuffs (daily necessities) in the places where the English language developed; compare daily bread, put bread on the table, earn one's bread, bread and water (as prisoners' diet or poverty diet), and know which side one's bread is buttered on.

bread-and-butter (comparative more bread-and-butter, superlative most bread-and-butter)

1. Relating to basic sustenance or the requirements for everyday living.
   • 2015, Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder, page 34:

     These road warrior plays were fronted by former semistars like Forrest Tucker or Hugh O'Brian, who had had their bread-and-butter TV shows cancelled. The job could pay $3,000 to $5,000 a week […]

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread,‎ and,‎ butter.

   bread-and-butter pudding

bread-and-butter

1. (archaic) A general saying used to ward off bad luck
2. (archaic) A saying specifically used to ward off bad luck when separating hands to walk either side of a tree