vbl. sb. [f. BREACH v. + -ING1.]

1

  1.  The action of making a breach in, or of breaking through (a wall, etc.): also attrib.

2

1803.  Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., II. 479. If the wall should be so bad as not to require breaching.

3

1833.  Fraser’s Mag., VIII. 317. The subsequent breaching of the Spanish fortresses.

4

1855.  Prescott, Philip II., I. IV. iii. 417. The breaching artillery consisted of forty-three guns.

5

1878.  Macm. Mag., Jan., 252/1. The breaching of tanks from excessive rain.

6

  2.  See quot., and cf. BREACH sb. 6 and v. 3.

7

a. 1843.  Penny Cycl., XXVII. 294/2. Other habits of this whale, such as ‘breaching,’ or leaping clear out of the water and falling back again on its side.

8

1885.  J. G. Wood, in Longm. Mag., V. 407. I may here mention that this habit of springing out of the water is called ‘breaching’ by whalers.

9