# breech
## 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 Bruech, Swedish brok. Doublet of vraka.

### Pronunciation

* (UK, General American) IPA: /bɹiːt͡ʃ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːtʃ
* Homophone: breach

### Noun

breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)
* (historical, now only in the plural or attributive) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. [from 11th c.]
** 1992, Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 57:The stallion lipped Alanna’s breech pockets. “He’s spoiled rotten.” Fishing a lump of sugar out, she fed it to him.
** 2009, John C[oyne] McManus, American Courage, American Carnage: 7th Infantry Chronicles: The 7th Infantry Regiment’s Combat Experience, 1812 Through World War II, New York, N.Y.: Forge, →ISBN, pages 244–245: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.
** 2015, David Nabhan, The Pilots of Borealis, London: Gollancz, published 2020, →ISBN:He reached into his breech pockets. They were huge, but well-tailored and disguised properly within the folds of the pants.
* (now rare) The buttocks or backside. [from 16th c.]
** 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 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, 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.
* (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
* be-breeched
* breechblock
* breech-cloth
* breechcloth
* breechclout
* breech delivery
* breech face
* breechless
* breechloader, breech-loader
* breech-loading, breechloading
* breech pin
* breech screw
* nonbreech
* quack-breech
* quake-breech
* quakebreech
* rod for one's breech
* unbreech
* wipe-breech

#### Translations
### 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
### 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 X, 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:A great man […] anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched.
* (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, [Act II, scene iii]:Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore.

#### Derived terms

* breech birth
* rod for one's own breech

#### Translations
### See also

* breeches

### Further reading

* breeches on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Becher