breach
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɹiːtʃ/
rhymes: -iːtʃ
homophone: breech
Forms: form: breaches
Etymology: From Middle English breche, from Old English bryċe (“fracture, breach”) and brǣċ (“breach, breaking, destruction”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruki, from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”) and *brēkō (“breaking”).
Senses: examples: text: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead."
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: Services between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley via Falkirk High are currently suspended, following a 30-metre breach of the Union Canal that occurred on August 12 after torrential rain and thunderstorms. The thousands of gallons of water that cascaded onto the railway line below washed away track, ballast and overhead line equipment, and undermined embankments along a 300-metre section of Scotland's busiest rail link.
ref: 2020 August 26, “Network News: Major flood damage severs key Edinburgh-Glasgow rail artery”, in Rail, page 21:
synonyms: break
rupture
fissure
glosses: A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee / embankment; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence.
examples: text: 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;
ref: 1748, David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Section 3, § 12:
glosses: The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
examples: text: breach of promise
topics: law
glosses: A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment.
examples: text: There's fallen between him and my lord / An unkind breach.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
glosses: A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling out.
examples: text: For London to have its own exclusive immigration policy would exacerbate the sense that immigration benefits only certain groups and disadvantages the rest. It would entrench the gap between London and the rest of the nation. And it would widen the breach between the public and the elite that has helped fuel anti-immigrant hostility.
ref: 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Sep 2013:
glosses: A difference in opinions, social class, etc.
examples: text: A clear breach is when the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean breach is when everything on deck is swept away.
text: And Dauid came to Baal-Perazim, and Daiud ſmote them there, and ſaid, The Lord hath broken foorth vpon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 5:20, column 1:
text: 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.
ref: 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:
synonyms: surge
surf
glosses: A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves.
examples: text: And Dauid was diſpleaſed, becauſe the Lord had made a breach vpon Uzza; wherefore that place is called Perez-Uzza, to this day.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Chronicles 13:11, columns 1–2:
glosses: A breaking out upon; an assault.
examples: text: An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule,
And death arreſts the organe of my voyce.
Who entring at the breach thy ſword hath made,
Sackes euery vaine and artier of my heart, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:
text: Breach, for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath cauſed a blemiſh in a man, ſo ſhall it be done to him againe.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 24:20, column 1:
glosses: A bruise; a wound.
glosses: A hernia; a rupture.
Synonyms: break
gap
rift
rupture
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: anticipatory breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breachful
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breachless
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breach of confidence
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breach of contract
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breach of promise
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breach of the peace
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breach of trust
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: breachy
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: cyberbreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: data breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: faithbreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: grithbreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: honour in the breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: honor in the breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: hull breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: material breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: megabreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: more honored in the breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: oathbreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: once more into the breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: prebreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: sea breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: shipbreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: spousebreach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: step into the breach
sense: Terms derived from breach (noun)
word: wedbreach