shortbread

American

[shawrt-bred] / ˈʃɔrtˌbrɛd /

noun

a butter cookie commonly made in thick, pie-shaped wheels or rolled and cut in fancy shapes.

shortbread British

/ ˈʃɔːtˌbrɛd /

noun

a rich crumbly biscuit made from dough with a large proportion of butter

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of shortbread

First recorded in 1795–1805; short + bread

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But on the day when Twitch stopped in with a batch of shortbread cookies after everyone else had already arrived, something small but significant happened.

From Literature

A new version would have more tartan than a shortbread factory.

From BBC

Sitting on the deck, I put my nose to the glass and breathed in aromas of light peat, ripe plums, shortbread and, floating in on the breeze, sea air.

From The Wall Street Journal

For instance, I take great pride in the way my family’s brown butter shortbread cookie recipe consistently yields the most melt-in-your-mouth delight known to man.

From Salon

Slice-and-bake cookies, whether rich shortbreads like the one here or crumbly sablés, are supposedly goofproof.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023