breadcrumb
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/
Forms: form: breadcrumbs
form: breadcrumbing
form: breadcrumbed
form: breadcrumbed
form: bread crumb
Etymology: From bread + crumb. The computing and figurative senses allude to the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, where Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to find the way back home when venturing into the woods.
Senses: examples: text: All this breadcrumbing finished, you can put the meat on a grid over a baking dish and leave it until you are ready to cook it.
ref: 2009, Elizabeth David, Omelette and a Glass Of Wine, →ISBN:
text: Said chef then proceeds to cough slimy phlegm all over the veal before it is breadcrumbed.
ref: 2010, Teri Louise Kelly, Sex, Knives and Bouillabaisse, →ISBN:
text: A Swede can't imagine a more summery food than breadcrumbed Baltic herring fillets stuffed with dill or parsley and soused in an oldfashioned vinegar
ref: 2011, Sten Sture Skaldeman, Lose Weight by Eating, →ISBN:
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To sprinkle breadcrumbs on to food, normally before cooking.
examples: text: Along those same lines, creating separate folders can enable you to use "breadcrumbing," which is another navigation aid (discussed in the section "Determining How to Organize the Information," later in this chapter).
ref: 2003, Sybex Inc., HTML complete, page 155:
text: One navigational technique—breadcrumbing—is like having a “You Are Here” store directory in each aisle.
ref: 2003, Kreta Chandler, Karen Hyatt, Customer-centered Design: A New Approach to Web Usability, →ISBN:
text: The most striking change from previous versions of Windows is that Vista displays the path using a method called breadcrumbing.
ref: 2007, John Rizzo, Moving to Microsoft Windows Vista: Visual Quickproject Guide, →ISBN, page 93:
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To add navigational breadcrumbs to (a web page or user interface).
examples: text: The process of breadcrumbing is the means by which a game writer can lead the player forward with a trail of clues, or the level designers can lead the player via more physical symbols.
ref: 2007, Chris Mark Bateman, Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames, page 89:
text: I consider where more landmarks are needed and other changes for better flow and breadcrumbing.
ref: 2016, Christopher W. Totten, An Architectural Approach to Level Design, →ISBN, pages 198–199:
text: An alternate reality game—ARG—is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as its media platform and uses storytelling “bread-crumbed” across several media to deliver a story that is altered and impacted in real time by the participants' ideas and actions (Dena, 2008; Denward & Waern, 2008; Werner, 2008).
ref: 2016, Artur Lugmayr, Cinzia Dal Zotto, Media Convergence Handbook - Vol. 2: Firms and User Perspectives, →ISBN:
text: It was what had attracted me to her in the first place. "You can say something," I said. "I'm easy to talk to." She frowned. The last time we had a private talk, in her kitchen, she admitted to playing me for a fool, making me fall in love with her, and breadcrumbing my way to discovering a deadly necromantic artifact.
ref: 2016, Domino Finn, Heart Strings:
glosses: To use clues or enticements to lead someone in the desired direction.
Derived terms: breadcrumb up