Crossword clues for breeches
breeches
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Breeches \Breech"es\ (br[i^]ch"[e^]z), n. pl. [OE. brech, brek, AS. br[=e]k, pl. of br[=o]c breech, breeches; akin to Icel. br[=o]k breeches, ODan. brog, D. broek, G. bruch; cf. L. bracae, braccae, which is of Celtic origin. Cf. Brail.]
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A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes.
His jacket was red, and his breeches were blue.
--Coleridge. -
Trousers; pantaloons. [Colloq.]
Breeches buoy, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines.
Breeches pipe, a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end.
Knee breeches, breeches coming to the knee, and buckled or fastened there; smallclothes.
To wear the breeches, to usurp the authority of the husband; -- said of a wife. [Colloq.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1200, a double plural, from Old English brec "breeches," which already was plural of broc "garment for the legs and trunk," from Proto-Germanic *brokiz (cognates: Old Norse brok, Dutch broek, Danish brog, Old High German bruoh, German Bruch, obsolete since 18c. except in Swiss dialect), perhaps from PIE root *bhreg- (see break (v.)). The Proto-Germanic word is a parallel form to Celtic *bracca, source (via Gaulish) of Latin braca (aource of French braies), and some propose that the Germanic word group is borrowed from Gallo-Latin, others that the Celtic was from Germanic.\n
\nExpanded sense of "part of the body covered by breeches, posterior" led to senses in childbirthing (1670s) and gunnery ("the part of a firearm behind the bore," 1570s). As the popular word for "trousers" in English, displaced in U.S. c.1840 by pants. The Breeches Bible (Geneva Bible of 1560) so called on account of rendition of Gen. iii:7 (already in Wyclif) "They sewed figge leaues together, and made themselues breeches."
Wiktionary
n. 1 (plural of breech English) 2 A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes. 3 (context informal English) trousers; pantaloons; britches.
WordNet
n. trousers ending above the knee [syn: knee breeches, knee pants, knickerbockers, knickers]
Wikipedia
Breeches ( or ) are an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. The breeches were normally closed and fastened about the leg, along its open seams at varied lengths, and to the knee, by either buttons or by a draw-string, or by one or more straps and buckle or brooches. Formerly a standard item of Western men's clothing, they had fallen out of use by the mid 19th century in favour of trousers. Modern athletic garments used for English riding and fencing, although called breeches or britches, differ from breeches in ways discussed below.
Usage examples of "breeches".
One of them was dressed as men always had been, in Daniel’s experience, until very recently: a black coat and black breeches with no decorations.
His servant and his friend were tugging at the cuffs, but the breeches seemed to’ve shrunk onto his legs.
He peeled off spatterdashes to reveal breeches and stockings that were only out-moded by six months to a year, and then found a coffee-house of his own, just across Pall Mall from the mysterious shop, along (therefore) the southern limit of St.
But it was good that he did, because his room was otherwise a horror—his dark breeches couldn’t conceal that he had been pissing blood, sometimes sooner than he could get to the chamber-pot.
Meanwhile Lydia was picking up certain of his garments, such as farmers’ breeches and cowherds’ boots, holding them at arm’s length and mugging.
But he pointedly declined to bring his breeches into contact with the bench, a splintery improvisation strewn with pasty-flakes, pipe-ashes, and rat-shite.
Once More into the Breeches had become very popular since its Trinity College debut.
Jack knew that they were passing into diverse rooms because the thresholds barked his hips and ribs and he got fleeting views of servants’ breeches and skirts.
Suddenly—to my indescribable shock—the King’s breeches were down around his ankles.
He was deathly pale and tottering from side to side, but—somewhat incredibly—he was alive, and awake, and buttoning up his own breeches.
The dog had come after me and seized me by the leg of my breeches and held me long enough for the farmer to come after me with a pitchfork.
A hard yank down on his breeches freed his erect penis while binding his thighs together.
Bob was behind her, using her as a screen while he pulled his breeches up with one hand.
Daniel moved to a place where he could see London between trees, dropped his breeches, squatted down on his haunches, and began experimenting with various pelvic settings in hopes of allowing some urine to part with his body.
To go with his tall black wig and his thin black moustache he was wearing an outfit that was, fundamentally, black: the de rigueur three-piece suit of waistcoat, coat, and breeches, all in the same fabric—probably a very fine wool.