Also 3–6 breche, 5 bryg, 6 Sc. brache, 7 bretch, ? 8 breech. [ME. breche, partly perh. repr. OE. bryce, brice (:—OTeut. *bruki-z from *brek-: see BREAK), which however gave in early ME. BRUCHE; partly a. F. brèche, in same sense but chiefly concrete. The obvious relation of break, breach, as in speak, speech, would tend to make breche, breach the prevailing form.]
I. The action of breaking.
† 1. The physical action of breaking; the fact of being broken; breakage, fracture. Obs.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 670 (Gr.). Ne sy him banes bryce.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8220 (Gött.). Sua depe the rotis samen kest miht ne man þeden winne widuten breche [v.r. brekyng].
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 346. By violence of bretch and ruins great.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madn., 295. The casuall breach of a Crystall Glasse.
1676. Hale, Contempl., I. 52. The breach of a vein … may put a period to all those pleasures.
† b. Breach of the day: ‘break’ of day. Obs.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., XIV. (1599), 667. The assault began about the breach of the day.
2. The breaking of waves on a coast or over a vessel; hence, the nautical phr. clean, clear breach.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. i. 23. Before you tooke me from breach of the sea.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, iii. She [the boat] would be dashed in … pieces by the breach of the sea.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 129. Clear breach, the waves rolling clean over without breaking…. Clean-breach, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.
3. fig. The breaking of a command, rule, engagement, duty, or of any legal or moral bond or obligation; violation, infraction: common in such phrases as breach of contract, covenant, faith, promise, trust.
[c. 1025. Eccl. Laws of Cnut, 24. Wið æȝhwylcne æwbryce.]
1382. Wyclif, Jer. iii. 13. To the Lord thi God thou hast do lawe breche.
c. 1440. York Myst., v. 143. Lorde, Eue garte me do wronge and to þat bryg me brought.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., xvii. Attempted the breche or violacion of the same statutes.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (1884), 13. Better then the breach of ani custum.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. i. 170. Receiue such welcome … As Honour, without breach of Honour may Make tender of. Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. ii. 162. Nuptial breaches.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus iii. 1. Who … liue in the breach of Gods commaundement.
1636. Massinger, Bashful Lover, IV. ii. A virtue, and not to be blended With vicious breach of faith.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. xxv. 7. The breaches innumerable, wherewith I have … offended against thee.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 262, ¶ 7. Nor shall I look upon it as any Breach of Charity.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, ii. § 6. 109. They can … break them and be punished for the breach.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 174. In breach of your promises to me.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, iv. 53. Convicted of a breach of contract.
1834. Arnold, Life & Corr. (1844), I. vii. 379. What it would be a breach of duty in me to omit.
1879. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 370. The breach of the truce by the Scots.
b. spec. and techn., as breach of arrestment, illegal disposal of property which has been ‘attached,’ or placed under the control of a law-court; breach of close, unlawful entry upon private ground, trespass; breach of (the) peace, an infringement or violation of the public peace by an affray, riot, or other disturbance; breach of pound, the action of breaking into a pound or similar enclosure without right or warrant; breach of prison, escape of a prisoner from confinement; breach of privilege, a violation of the rights of a privileged body; breach of promise, gen. as in prec. sense; spec. = breach of promise to marry.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, ii. 30. They … might fairly declaim against [it] by the name of Breach of Priviledge.
1671. F. Philipps, Reg. Necess., 50. For the breach of the peace 120 shillings.
1817. Parl. Deb., 796. The Speaker said … the House should pronounce, whether the passage in the work … was or was not a breach of privilege.
1865. Derby Mercury, 1 March. Alleged contempt of that House, and a breach of its privileges.
Mod. The damages in a breach-of-promise case.
† 4. An irruption into; an infringement upon; an inroad, injurious assault. Obs.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 100. The Axiomaes of Aristotle … have sodeinley made … a breach into my mind.
1611. Bible, 1 Chron. xiii. 11. The Lord had made a breach vpon Vzza.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 58. Your connivence with the Irish butcheries, your forgetfull breaches upon the Parliament.
a. 1678. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1713), I. I. 23 (J.). Which Breach upon his Kingly Power was so much without a Precedent [etc.].
1751. Addison, Freeholder, No. 13. 77. Innocent of the great Breach which is made upon Government.
5. A breaking of relations (of union or continuity).
1625. Bacon, Unity in Relig., Ess. (Arb.), 423. Nothing, doth so much … drive Men out of the Church, as Breach of Unity.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 162. By the breach and dissolution of … the relation itself.
1775. De Lolme, Eng. Const., I. i. (1784), 14. They completed the breach of those feeble ties.
Mod. It could not be done without a breach of continuity.
b. absol. A break-up of friendly relations; rupture, separation, difference, disagreement, quarrel.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (1884), 17. A litle breach betwixt thes twoo and me was the tru and onli caus of al thes sturs.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1201. Breach of friendes.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 238. There’s falne betweene him, & my Lord, An vnkind breach.
1713. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 87. A great breach was like to follow.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. ix. 186. The nearest approach to a breach was … when their monument of stones was mistaken … for an altar.
6. The leaping of a whale clear out of the water.
a. 1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 294/2. The breach may be seen in a clear day from the mast-head at a distance of six miles.
II. The product of breaking.
7. A physically broken or ruptured condition of anything; a broken, fractured, damaged or injured spot, place or part; an injury.
† a. of the body. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lv. (1495), 270. Yf that breche [hernia] is grete and olde and wyth brekyng of the synewe it is sondred vneth or neuer.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 118. It cureth also fistulas, old breaches, and temporall byles.
1665. G. Havers, P. della Valle’s Trav. E. India, 395. Shewing him his hand and his other breaches.
b. A disrupted place, gap, or fissure, caused by the separation of continuous parts; a break.
1530. Palsgr., 201/1. Breche where water breke in, breche.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 320. The yearth hath many great chynkes or breaches.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, V. 174. The salt water … entred at the large breaches of their poore wooden castle.
1653. Manton, Exp. James iii. 5. Small breaches in a sea-bank let in great inundations.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 79, ¶ 11. The crew implore the liberty of repairing their breaches.
c. esp. ‘A gap in a fortification made by a battery’ (J.). Hence To stand in the breach (often fig.).
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 55. To come off the Breach, with his Pike bent brauely.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iv. 138. To ruinate their Curtine, and make good breaches.
1611. Bible, Ps. cvi. 23. Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach [Coverdale, gap].
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 363. The Town was easily gained by Scaling Ladders, and Breaches.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 428, ¶ 2. No Soldier entering a Breach adventures more for Honour.
1799. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., I. 30. On the 3rd of May the breach appeared to be practicable.
1814. Scott, Wav., xiii. Being the first to mount the breach.
d. fig.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vii. 15. Cure this great breach in his abused Nature.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. Ded. Let. To bind up the great breaches of my little fortune. Ibid. (1657), in Four C. Eng. Lett., 106. By your wise counsel and comfort stand in the breaches of your own family.
1710. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 397. An unhappy Breach in my Health … forc’d me to seek these foreign Climates.
1722. De Foe, Moll Fl. (1840), 132. Vice breaks in at the breaches of decency.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. 63. To heal the breach in his wounded honour.
† 8. Surf made by the sea breaking over rocks; broken water, breakers. Obs.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia (1629), 19. We found many shoules and breaches. Ibid. (1626), Accid. Yng. Seamen, 18. A shoule, a ledge of rockes, a breach, a shallow water.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4380/3. The Royal Anne … saw several Breaches, and soon after, the Rocks above Water.
† 9. A break in a coast, a bay, harbor. Obs. Cf. BREAK sb.1 7 b.
1611. Bible, Judges v. 17. Asher continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches [Vulg. portubus, Wyclif hauens].
† 10. A break in continuity, an interruption, interval; a division marked by breaks or intervals.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xix. (Arb.), 57. By breaches or diuisions to be more commodiously song to the harpe. Ibid., xxvi. 65. This Epithalamie was deuided by breaches into three partes…. The first breach was song at the first parte of the night.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. iv. 35. And all her sister Nymphes … Supplide her sobbing breaches with sad complement.
11. A condition of broken relations; a gap in sentiment or sympathy.
1745. Wesley, Answ. Ch., 1. I do not want … to widen the Breach between us.
1816. Scott, Antiq., v. The breach was speedily made up between them.
1863. Bright, Sp. Amer. (1876), 138. Create an everlasting breach between the people of England and the people of the United States of America.
12. A piece of land broken up by the plow. dial.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 43, marg. Erith breaches [that surrounded leuell at Erith]. Ibid., New Sorte of Soyle, 44. That exceeding fertilitie which I have herd commended in those two breaches, even by the severall farmers thereof.
1864. Capern, Devon Provinc., Breach, a plot of land prepared for another crop.
