gin·ger·bread

[jin-jer-bred]
noun
1.
a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.
2.
a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.
3.
elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation: a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.
adjective
4.
heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented: a gingerbread style of architecture.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English gingebreed (influenced by breed bread), variant of gingebrad, -brat ginger paste < Old French gingembras, -brat preserved ginger < Medieval Latin *gingi(m)brātum a medicinal preparation (neuter past participle), derivative of Latin gingiber ginger

gin·ger·bread·y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Gingerbread is always a great word to know.
So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
Collins
World English Dictionary
gingerbread (ˈdʒɪndʒəˌbrɛd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup
2.  a.  a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing
 b.  (as modifier): gingerbread man
3.  a.  an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation
 b.  (as modifier): gingerbread style of architecture

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

gingerbread
1299, gingerbrar, from O.Fr. ginginbrat "preserved ginger," from M.L. gingimbratus "gingered," from gingiber (see ginger). The ending changed by folk etymology to -brede "bread," a formation attested by 1352. Originally "preserved ginger," the meaning "a kind of spiced cake"
is from 15c. Sense of "fussy decoration on a house" is first recorded 1757, originally gingerbread-work (1748), a sailors' term for carved decoration on a ship.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
Among other features, the castle is turned into gift-wrapped presents, candy canes and a gingerbread house.
She spent hours with my brothers and me, making gingerbread houses or sledding or cutting out paper snowflakes.
And you can see how magnificent the gingerbread house is this year.
The laid-back island atmosphere mixes with island architecture such as gingerbread mansions and conch houses with tin roofs.
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