breadliner

English

Etymology

breadline +‎ -er

Noun

breadliner (plural breadliners)

  1. Someone who lives at the poverty level.
    • 1975, Alex Baskin, The Unemployed (1930-1932), page 4:
      After all the breadline makes breadliners.
    • 2009, Maria Roberts, Single Mother on the Verge:
      He looks vaguely charmed to meet a bona fide plebeian; a real-life breadliner.
    • 2011, Stephen Weissman, Chaplin: A Life:
      Hannah Hill Chaplin's precipitous decline from headliner to breadliner was a devastating defeat for the formerly “light-hearted and gay” music hall comedienne, better known to her fans and admirers as "that charming little chanter, Lillie Harley" — or Lily Harley, the usual spelling.
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