Definition: have a lot of work to do

Having a lot to do. Although nowadays "having bread on the board" means having a lot of tedious tasks to accomplish, the meaning of this expression was quite different at the end of the 19th century. It meant that one had enough reserves to face the future. At that time, farmers would prepare large quantities of bread and store it on a wooden board attached to the ceiling. The expression later took on the meaning of "having enough to live on without having to work". The current meaning of "having work in reserve" seems to have only appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. However, another plausible explanation has already been put forward for the origin of this expression. In the 19th century, the court distributed bread rations to defendants who were to serve long sentences of hard labour. This is where the ideas of length and hardship expressed in this expression come from.