breach
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also breech
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
- Homophone: breech
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English breche, from Old English briċe, bryċe (“breach, fracture, breaking, infringement; fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”), from Proto-Germanic *brukōną, *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Scots breach, breiche, bretch, breack (“breach”), Saterland Frisian breeke (“breach, break”), Dutch breuk (“breach”), German Bruch (“breach”). More at break.
Noun [edit]
breach (plural breaches)
- 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:
- (law) A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment; as, a breach of contract; a breach of promise.
- A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture; a fissure.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 3, scene 1:
- "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead."
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 3, scene 1:
- A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling-out.
- A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves; surge; surf.
- 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.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:
- A breaking out upon; an assault.
- (archaic) A bruise; a wound.
- (archaic) A hernia; a rupture.
Synonyms [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from breach (noun)
Translations [edit]
figuratively: the act of breaking
break of a law or obligation
gap
breaking up of amicable relations
breaking of waves
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Verb [edit]
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 clear out of the water
