Crossword clues for breech
breech
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Breech \Breech\ (br[=e]ch or br[i^]ch; 277), n. [See Breeches.]
The lower part of the body behind; the buttocks.
Breeches. [Obs.]
--Shak.The hinder part of anything; esp., the part of a cannon, or other firearm, behind the chamber.
(Naut.) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
Breech \Breech\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Breeched; p. pr. & vb. n. Breeching.]
-
To put into, or clothe with, breeches.
A great man . . . anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched.
--Macaulay. -
To cover as with breeches. [Poetic]
Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore.
--Shak. To fit or furnish with a breech; as, to breech a gun.
-
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. To fasten with breeching.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"back part of a gun or firearm," 1570s, from singular of breeches (q.v.).
Wiktionary
Born, or having been born, breech. adv. With the hips coming out before the head. n. 1 (context historical now only in the plural English) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. (from 11th c.) 2 (context now rare English) The buttocks or backside. (from 16th c.) 3 The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber. (from 16th c.) 4 (context nautical English) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat. 5 A breech birth. v
1 (context dated transitive English) To dress in breeches. (qualifier: especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time. 2 (context dated transitive English) To beat or spank on the buttocks. 3 (context transitive English) To fit or furnish with a breech. 4 (context transitive English) To fasten with breeching. 5 (context poetic transitive obsolete English) To cover as if with breeches.
WordNet
n. opening in the rear of the barrel of a gun where bullets can be loaded [syn: rear of barrel, rear of tube]
Wikipedia
Breech may refer to:
- Breeches, an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down
- Breech, in a breech-loading weapon, a chamber integral to the rear portion of a gun barrel
- Buttocks, the lower part of the human abdomen
- Breech, the lower part of a pulley block
- Breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leave it
Usage examples of "breech".
He had donned a loose white shirt and tan knee breeches over white stockings and, amazingly, brown brass-buckled shoes.
The cold was climbing up his legs, and his breeches were misery to wear: wet and clinging and clammy, and liberally beslimed with mud and unidentifiable swamp-muck.
The Ktemnoi Sacred Squares were dressed in blue shirts and breeches, with brown boiled-leather jacks for the musketeers and polished steel breastplates for the billmen, set off by orange sashes.
An edict was published and affixed to the doors of all the churches, in which it was declared that breeches with braguettes were only to be worn by the public hangmen.
His father, possibly the greatest master of Bravura style, had started training him when he barely breeched.
General Cazombi wanted to give him a medal for coming up with the way to make the Tweed Hull Breecher work.
In this case the breeching should be secured after alternate exercises right and left.
Gun Captain then directs the Handspikemen, or if the screw is used, the 2d Captain, to raise the breech so as to level the gun and bring all parts of the tackles and breeching taut.
If the lower-deck guns are to be housed, the Gun Captain directs the gun to be laid square in the middle of the port and run in to a taut breeching, and if loaded, the load to be drawn.
The 2d Sponger and 2d Loader haul taut side-tackles and choke luffs, or, if rolling deep, hitch the falls round the straps of the blocks, and then unshackle the old breeching and shackle the new, which is to be brought to the gun by the 2d Captain.
The 2d Captain passes the old breeching amidships, and the men resume their usual duties at the gun.
Sponger and 2d Loader, after securing the side-tackle falls, will assist to load the gun, and the additional men will assist in unshackling the old and shackling the new breeching, but one of these will do all the duties just assigned to the 1st Captain, so as not to interfere with his ordinary duties in loading.
The shackling of the Breeching and the removal of the Bolt are, therefore, deferred until the Gun has been run out in the subsequent proceedings.
But experience shows that in firing it is better to rely habitually on the Breeching, and use the Compressors to assist.
Preventer, or Inner Breeching, will be found indispensable to avoid accident when running out to leeward in a sea-way.