breadline

noun

Etymology: From bread + line. In sense 2, referring to the income level at which one can afford to buy bread, a staple food.

1. A line of people waiting to receive food from a charity.

   “I do not think anyone of us can walk by a breadline and see even the most unkempt and raggedy man in the line without saying to himself, "There but for the grace of God."”

   “Breadlines and social agencies, while staffing women, employed more men and served more men, making women a minority in the visual landscape.”

2. The lowest income level at which one's most basic necessities of survival are met; poverty line or subsistence level.

   “Every day brings new worries about falling below the breadline.”

   “[…] and she wasn't used to cash, living on the breadline with a kid to bring up.”