on the breadline
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Living in poverty with barely enough money for basic needs
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Sống trong nghèo đói với tiền bạc vừa đủ cho nhu cầu cơ bản
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: on the line of bread
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Many families were on the breadline after the economic crisis
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “on the breadline” mean?
Living in poverty with barely enough money for basic needs Literally: on the line of bread
Is “on the breadline” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.