breach
See also: breech
English
Etymology
From Middle English breche, from Old English bryċe (“fracture, breach”) and brǣċ (“breach, breaking, destruction”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruki, from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”) and *brēkō (“breaking”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [bɹiːtʃ]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːtʃ
- Homophone: breech
Noun
breach (plural breaches)
- A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee / embankment; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence
- Synonyms: break, rupture, fissure
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:
- "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead."
- 2020 August 26, “Network News: Major flood damage severs key Edinburgh-Glasgow rail artery”, in Rail, page 21:
- Services between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley via Falkirk High are currently suspended, following a 30-metre breach of the Union Canal that occurred on August 12 after torrential rain and thunderstorms. The thousands of gallons of water that cascaded onto the railway line below washed away track, ballast and overhead line equipment, and undermined embankments along a 300-metre section of Scotland's busiest rail link.
- A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling-out.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:
- There's fallen between him and my lord / An unkind breach.
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- A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves
- A clear breach is when the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean breach is when everything on deck is swept away.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 2 Samuel 5:20, column 1:
- And Dauid came to Baal-Perazim, and Daiud ſmote them there, and ſaid, The Lord hath broken foorth vpon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:
- I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore.
- Synonyms: surge, surf
- A breaking out upon; an assault.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Chronicles 13:11, columns 1–2:
- And Dauid was diſpleaſed, becauſe the Lord had made a breach vpon Uzza; wherefore that place is called Perez-Uzza, to this day.
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- (archaic) A bruise; a wound.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:
- An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule,
And death arreſts the organe of my voyce.
Who entring at the breach thy ſword hath made,
Sackes euery vaine and artier of my heart, […]
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Leviticus 24:20, column 1:
- Breach, for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath cauſed a blemiſh in a man, ſo ſhall it be done to him againe.
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- (archaic) A hernia; a rupture.
- (law) A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment
- breach of promise
- (figuratively) A difference in opinions, social class etc.
- 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):
- For London to have its own exclusive immigration policy would exacerbate the sense that immigration benefits only certain groups and disadvantages the rest. It would entrench the gap between London and the rest of the nation. And it would widen the breach between the public and the elite that has helped fuel anti-immigrant hostility.
- 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):
- The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
- 1748, David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Section 3, § 12:
- But were the poet to make a total difression from his subject, and introduce a new actor, nowise connected with the personages, the imagination, feeling a breach in transition, would enter coldly into the new scene;
- 1748, David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Section 3, § 12:
Synonyms
- break
- rift
- rupture
- gap
Derived terms
Terms derived from breach (noun)
- anticipatory breach
- breachful
- breach of confidence
- breach of contract
- breach of promise
- breach of the peace
- breach of trust
- breachy
- data breach
- faithbreach
- grithbreach
- honour in the breach, honor in the breach
- hull breach
- material breach
- more honored in the breach
- oathbreach
- once more into the breach
- sea breach
- spousebreach
- step into the breach
Translations
figuratively: the act of breaking
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break of a law or obligation
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gap
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breaking up of amicable relations
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breaking of waves
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assault
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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![](Images/wiktionary/Baleine_%C3%A0_bosse_et_son_baleineau_2.jpg.webp)
A whale breaching
Verb
breach (third-person singular simple present breaches, present participle breaching, simple past and past participle breached)
- (transitive) To make a breach in.
- They breached the outer wall, but not the main one.
- (transitive) To violate or break.
- 2000, Mobile Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast, Inc. v. United States, Justice Stevens.
- "I therefore agree with the Court that the Government did breach its contract with petitioners in failing to approve, within 30 days of its receipt, the plan of exploration petitioners submitted."
- 2000, Mobile Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast, Inc. v. United States, Justice Stevens.
- (transitive, nautical, of the sea) To break into a ship or into a coastal defence.
- (intransitive, of a whale) To leap out of the water.
- 1835, Hart, Joseph C., Miriam Coffin, or The whale-fishermen, Harper & brothers, vol. 2, page 147:
- The fearless whale-fishermen now found themselves in the midst of the monsters; ... some ... came jumping into the light of day, head uppermost, exhibiting their entire bodies in the sun, and falling on their sides into the water with the weight of a hundred tons, and thus "breaching" with a crash that the thunder of a park of artillery could scarcely equal.
- 1837, Hamilton, Robert, The natural history of the ordinary cetacea or whales, W.H. Lizars, page 166:
- But one of its most surprising feats, as has been mentioned of the genera already described, is leaping completely out of the water, or 'breaching,' as it is called. ... it seldom breaches more than twice or thrice at a time, and in quick succession.
- 1835, Hart, Joseph C., Miriam Coffin, or The whale-fishermen, Harper & brothers, vol. 2, page 147:
- (law, informal, transitive, usually passive) To charge or convict (someone) of breaching the terms of a bail, probation, recognizance, etc.
- 2011 June 7, D.A. Harris, J., “R. v. Larochelle, 2011 ONCJ 339”, in CanLII, retrieved 10 October 2021:
- […] the Pre-Sentence Report states that: "He was breached by the probation officer within several months of the commencement of the Probation Order for failing to report as he relocated to another Province and did not report there as directed. […] "
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Derived terms
- breacher
Translations
to make a breach in
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to violate or break
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of the sea, to break
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of a whale, to leap clear
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Anagrams
- Bacher