breech

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.

noun

1. (historical, now only in the plural) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks.
2. (now rare) The buttocks or backside.
   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 […] 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 157
   When pamper'd Cupids, bestly Veni's, / And motly, squinting Harvequini's, / Shall lick no more their Lady's Br—, / But die of Looseness, Claps, or Itch; / Fair Thames from either ecchoing Shoare / Shall hear, and dread my manly Roar. 1736, Alexander Pope, Bounce to Fop
3. (firearms) The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber.
   Coordinate term: muzzle
4. (nautical) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
5. (obstetrics) A breech birth.

adv

1. (obstetrics, of birth) With the hips coming out before the head.

adj

1. (obstetrics) Born, or having been born, breech.

verb

1. (dated, transitive) To dress in breeches. (especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time (the breeching ceremony).
   […] it occurred before I was breeched, and I was breeched at three years and a quarter old; 1748-1832, Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 10
2. (dated, transitive) To beat or spank on the buttocks.
3. (transitive) To fit or furnish with a breech.
   to breech a gun
4. (transitive) To fasten with breeching.
5. (poetic, transitive, obsolete) To cover as if with breeches.