Breech
adj, adv, noun, verb ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. attributive, countable, historical, in-plural, uncountable
"'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,"
- 2 opening in the rear of the barrel of a gun where bullets can be loaded wordnet
- 3 The buttocks or backside. archaic, countable, uncountable
"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 […]"
- 4 The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber. countable, uncountable
- 5 The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat. countable, uncountable
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- 6 A breech birth. countable, uncountable
- 1 To dress in breeches. (especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time (the breeching ceremony). dated, transitive
"[…] it occurred before I was breeched, and I was breeched at three years and a quarter old;"
- 2 To beat or spank on the buttocks. dated, transitive
- 3 To fit or furnish with a breech. transitive
"to breech a gun"
- 4 To fasten with breeching. transitive
- 5 To cover as if with breeches. obsolete, poetic, transitive
"Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore."
- 1 Born, or having been born, breech. not-comparable
- 1 With the hips coming out before the head. not-comparable
Example
More examples"Last time I had a breech delivery."
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.
Related phrases
More for "breech"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.