What is "breast"

Brest \Brest\, Breast \Breast\, n. (Arch.) A torus. [Obs.]

Breast \Breast\ (br[e^]st), n. [OE. brest, breost, As. bre['o]st; akin to Icel. brj[=o]st, Sw. br["o]st, Dan. bryst, Goth. brusts, OS. briost, D. borst, G. brust.]

1. The fore part of the body, between the neck and the belly; the chest; as, the breast of a man or of a horse.

2. Either one of the protuberant glands, situated on the front of the chest or thorax in the female of man and of some other mammalia, in which milk is secreted for the nourishment of the young; a mamma; a teat.

   My brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother.
   --Cant. viii. 1.

3. Anything resembling the human breast, or bosom; the front or forward part of anything; as, a chimney breast; a plow breast; the breast of a hill.

   Mountains on whose barren breast The laboring clouds do often rest.
   --Milton.

4. (Mining)

   1. The face of a coal working.

   2. The front of a furnace.

5. The seat of consciousness; the repository of thought and self-consciousness, or of secrets; the seat of the affections and passions; the heart.

   He has a loyal breast.
   --Shak.

6. The power of singing; a musical voice; -- so called, probably, from the connection of the voice with the lungs, which lie within the breast. [Obs.]

   By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast.
   --Shak.

   Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work.

   Breast pang. See Angina pectoris, under Angina.

   To make a clean breast, to disclose the secrets which weigh upon one; to make full confession.

Breast \Breast\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Breasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Breasting.] To meet, with the breast; to struggle with or oppose manfully; as, to breast the storm or waves.

The court breasted the popular current by sustaining the demurrer.
--Wirt.

To breast up a hedge, to cut the face of it on one side so as to lay bare the principal upright stems of the plants.

Old English breost "breast, bosom; mind, thought, disposition," from Proto-Germanic *breustam "breast" (cognates: Old Saxon briost, Old Frisian briast, Old Norse brjost, Dutch borst, German brust, Gothic brusts), perhaps literally "swelling" and from PIE root *bhreus- "to swell, sprout" (cognates: Middle Irish bruasach "having a broad, strong chest," Old Irish bruinne "breast"). The spelling conforms to the Scottish and northern England dialectal pronunciation. Figurative sense of "seat of the emotions" was in Old English.

n. 1 Either of the two organs on the front of a woman's chest, which contain the mammary glands; also the analogous organs in men. 2 The chest, or front of the human thorax. 3 A section of clothing covering the breast are

1. 4 The figurative seat of the emotions, feelings etc.; one's heart or innermost thoughts. 5 The ventral portion of an animal's thorax. 6 A choice cut of poultry, especially chicken or turkey, taken from the bird’s breast; also a cut of meat from other animals, breast of mutton, veal, pork. 7 The front or forward part of anything. 8 (context mining English) The face of a coal working. 9 (context mining English) The front of a furnace. 10 (context obsolete English) The power of singing; a musical voice. v

2. (context transitive English) To push against with the breast; to meet full on, to oppose, to face.

1. n. the front part of the trunk from the neck to the abdomen; "he beat his breast in anger"

2. either of two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman [syn: bosom, knocker, boob, tit, titty]

3. meat carved from the breast of a fowl [syn: white meat]

1. v. meet at breast level; "The runner breasted the tape"

2. reach the summit; "They breasted the mountain"

3. confront bodily; "breast the storm" [syn: front]

The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate.

Breast may also refer to:

• Chest, a part of the anatomy of humans and various other animals
  • Breast meat, a part of poultry
• Chimney breast, a portion of a wall which projects forward over a fireplace
• The Breast, a 1972 novella
• The Breast (journal), a medical scientific journal

The breast is one of two prominences found on the upper ventral region of the torso of female and male primates. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secretes milk and feeds infants. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. At puberty, estrogens, in conjunction with growth hormone, cause breast development. Males do not develop pronounced or physiologically matured breasts because their bodies produce lower levels of estrogens and higher levels of androgens, namely testosterone, which suppress the effects of estrogens in developing breast tissue. The breasts of females are typically far more prominent than those of males.

Subcutaneous fat covers and envelops a network of ducts that converge to the nipple, and these tissues give the breast its size and shape. At the ends of the ducts are lobules, or clusters of alveoli, where milk is produced and stored in response to hormonal signals. During pregnancy, the breast responds to a complex interaction of hormones, including estrogens, progesterone, and prolactin, that mediate the completion of its development, namely lobuloalveolar maturation, in preparation of lactation and breastfeeding. Upon childbirth, the alveoli are stimulated to produce and secrete milk for infants.

Along with their function in feeding infants, female breasts have social and sexual characteristics. Breasts have been featured in notable ancient and modern sculpture, art, and photography. Female breasts can figure prominently in a woman's perception of her body image and sexual attractiveness. A number of Western cultures associate breasts with sexuality and tend to regard bare breasts as immodest or indecent. Breasts and especially the nipples are an erogenous zone on women. Given the emphasis of some cultures on breast size and attractiveness, some women seek breast augmentation or other kinds of surgery to enlarge or reduce their breast size or to reverse sagging breasts.