breech

noun

1. (attributive, countable, historical, in-plural, uncountable)A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks.

   “'Lat be,' quod he, ‘it shal nat be, so theech! Thou woldest make me kisse thyn old breech, And swere it were a relik of a seint,”

   “The stallion lipped Alanna’s breech pockets. “He’s spoiled rotten.” Fishing a lump of sugar out, she fed it to him.”

   “The typical American combat soldier in World War I wore an olive-drab tunic, stiff at the neck, breech-style trousers, and combat shoes with canvas leggings or, preferably, wrappings.”

   “He reached into his breech pockets. They were huge, but well-tailored and disguised properly within the folds of the pants.”

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)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 […]”

   “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.”

   “"Oho!" says Thwackum, "you will not! then I will have it out of your br—h;" that being the place to which he always applied for information on every doubtful occasion.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber.
4. (countable, uncountable)The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
5. (countable, uncountable)A breech birth.

adv

1. (not-comparable)With the hips coming out before the head.

adj

1. (not-comparable)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;”

   “A great man […] anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched.”

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. (obsolete, poetic, transitive)To cover as if with breeches.

   “Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore.”