Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Breech

Breech (brēch or brĭch; 277), n. [See Breeches.] 1. The lower part of the body behind; the buttocks.

2. Breeches. [Obs.] Shak.

3. The hinder part of anything; esp., the part of a cannon, or other firearm, behind the chamber.

4. (Naut.) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.

Breech, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Breeched; p. pr. & vb. n. Breeching.] 1. To put into, or clothe with, breeches.

A great man . . . anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched. Macaulay.

2. To cover as with breeches. [Poetic]

Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. Shak.

3. To fit or furnish with a breech; as, to breech a gun.

4. To whip on the breech. [Obs.]

Had not a courteous serving man conveyed me away, whilst he went to fetch whips, I think, in my conscience, he would have breeched me. Old Play.

5. To fasten with breeching.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.