bed and breakfast

noun, verb — 5 senses

bed and breakfast

nounalso spelled bed-and-breakfast

Etymology From bed + breakfast, from having a bed for the night and breakfast in the morning on offer.

1

A private home, guesthouse, small hotel etc. where guests are provided overnight accommodations and served breakfast but usually no other meals.

Derived terms
bed-and-breakfast deal, bed-and-breakfasting, bed-and-breakfast transaction

bed-and-breakfast

verb
1

To stay in a bed and breakfast.

  • We bed-and-breakfasted around Ireland and everywhere had placed before us great slashed loaves of soda bread made with coarse brown flour, buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda.2011, Pam Ayres, The Necessary Aptitude, page 360:
2

Business, Finance To engage in a bed-and-breakfast deal.

  • However, other assets (e.g. works of art) are still sometimes bed-and-breakfasted for tax purposes.2016, Jonathan Law, A Dictionary of Accounting:

bed and breakfast

noun

Etymology From the notion that two shillings and sixpence was once the price of lodging and breakfast in an inn.

1

Darts, Games A score of 26, made up of a score of 20, 1 and 5 in any order.

  • The language of darts is a combination of hybrid Cockney slang, metaphor and phrases that “stuck” for no apparent reason except they sounded good. […] Bed ’n’ breakfast—the number 26 when scored by hitting a 20, 5, and 1; comes from the price of a bed and breakfast in Olde England which was 2/6d, two shillings and sixpence.[1978 April, Dan Wheeler, Tom Jansing, “Mugs away!”, in All Hands, page 11:
  • This can be a lengthy procedure when neither team can do better than ‘bed and breakfast’ (26).1984, Ivan L. Brackin, William Fitzgerald, Darts, page 72:
2

Bingo, Games The number 26.

  • Bingo calls that might leave the budding old-timer generally baffled include:[…] 26 ― Bed and breakfast. Traditionally it would cost two and six – two shillings and six pence. Now its £180 a night but you get biscuits.[2008, Marcus Waring, The Deranged Book for Old Timers, page 68:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for bed and breakfast and bed-and-breakfast.