cast one's bread upon the waters
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Do good deeds without expecting reward or recognition
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Làm việc tốt mà không mong đợi phần thưởng hoặc công nhận
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: throw bread into water
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She cast her bread upon the waters by volunteering at the local soup kitchen
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “cast one's bread upon the waters” mean?
Do good deeds without expecting reward or recognition Literally: throw bread into water
Is “cast one's bread upon the waters” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.