breech
/ˈbɹiːt͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.91 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
Countable; Uncountable
adv
With the hips coming out before the head.
verb
To dress in breeches. (especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time (the breeching ceremony).
Dated; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "'Lat be,' quod he, ‘it shal nat be, so theech! Thou woldest make me kisse thyn old breech, And swere it were a relik of a seint,"
- "The stallion lipped Alanna’s breech pockets. “He’s spoiled rotten.” Fishing a lump of sugar out, she fed it to him."
- "The typical American combat soldier in World War I wore an olive-drab tunic, stiff at the neck, breech-style trousers, and combat shoes with canvas leggings or, preferably, wrappings."
- "He reached into his breech pockets. They were huge, but well-tailored and disguised properly within the folds of the pants."
- "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 […]"
- "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."
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 Bruech, Swedish brok. Doublet of vraka.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: breche, brēċ, *brōkiz, *brōks