unbreech
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Verb
[edit]unbreech (third-person singular simple present unbreeches, present participle unbreeching, simple past and past participle unbreeched)
- (transitive) To remove the breeches of.
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, my thoughts I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd
- (military, transitive) To free the breech of (a cannon etc.) from its fastenings or coverings.
- 1801, Thomas Pennant, A journey from London to the Isle of Wight:
- She was overladen with guns , some were unbreeched , and her port - holes left open
References
[edit]- “unbreech”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.