breech
See also: breach
English
Etymology
From Middle English breche, from Old English brēċ, from Proto-Germanic *brōkiz pl, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Alemannic German Brüch, Swedish brok.
Pronunciation
- (UK, General American) IPA(key): /bɹiːt͡ʃ/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -iːtʃ
- Homophone: breach
Noun
breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)
- (historical, now only in the plural) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. [from 11th c.]
- (now rare) The buttocks or backside. [from 16th c.]
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 157:
- And he made a woman for playing the whore, sit upon a great stone, on her bare breech twenty-foure houres, onely with corne and water, every three dayes, till nine dayes were past […]
- 1736, Alexander Pope, Bounce to Fop:
- When pamper'd Cupids, bestly Veni's, / And motly, squinting Harvequini's, / Shall lick no more their Lady's Br—, / But die of Looseness, Claps, or Itch; / Fair Thames from either ecchoing Shoare / Shall hear, and dread my manly Roar.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book III:
- "Oho!" says Thwackum, "you will not! then I will have it out of your br—h;" that being the place to which he always applied for information on every doubtful occasion.
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 157:
- (firearms) The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber. [from 16th c.]
- Coordinate term: muzzle
- (nautical) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
- (obstetrics) A breech birth.
Derived terms
- bear's-breech
- bear's breech
- breechblock
- breech-cloth
- breech delivery
- breech face
- breechloader, breech-loader
- breech-loading, breechloading
- breech pin
- breech screw
- quack-breech
- quake-breech
- rod for one's breech
- wipe-breech
Translations
Garment that clothes the buttocks
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part of a cannon or other firearm
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Adverb
breech (not comparable)
- (obstetrics, of birth) With the hips coming out before the head.
Derived terms
- breech birth
Adjective
breech (not comparable)
- (obstetrics) Born, or having been born, breech.
Translations
Born, or having been born, breech
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Verb
breech (third-person singular simple present breeches, present participle breeching, simple past and past participle breeched)
- (dated, transitive) To dress in breeches. (especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time (the breeching ceremony).
- 1748-1832, Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 10:
- […] it occurred before I was breeched, and I was breeched at three years and a quarter old;
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 10, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:
- A great man […] anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched.
- 1748-1832, Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 10:
- (dated, transitive) To beat or spank on the buttocks.
- (transitive) To fit or furnish with a breech.
- to breech a gun
- (transitive) To fasten with breeching.
- (poetic, transitive, obsolete) To cover as if with breeches.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore.
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Derived terms
Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, or noun breech
- breech birth
- rod for one's own breech
See also
- breeches
Further reading
breeches on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- Becher