breech

See also breach

English

Etymology

Old English brēċ, plural of *brōc, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Swiss German Brüch, Swedish brok.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /bɹiːtʃ/
• Rhymes: -iːtʃ
• Homophone: breach

Noun

breech (countable and uncountable; plural breeches)

1. (historical, now only in the plural) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. [from 11th c.]
2. (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, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book III ch viii

     "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.

3. The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber. [from 16th c.]
4. (nautical) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
5. A breech birth.

Translations

Garment that clothes the buttocks

French: culotte (fr) f.

part of a cannon or other firearm

Russian: казённая часть f.

Adverb

breech

1. With the hips coming out before the head.

Adjective

breech

1. Born, or having been born, breech.

Derived terms

Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, or noun breech

breech birth

rod for one's own breech

See also

• breeches