breech

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“
"On top, right at the breech The gun was a flintlock, or rather, a dog-lock; sure enough, stamped on the breech was the big "A" of the Company of Workmen Armorers of London, the seventeenth-century gunmakers' guild That's right," he nodded.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun The lower rear portion of the human trunk; the buttocks.
  2. noun A breech presentation or delivery.
  3. noun A fetus in breech presentation.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • For the breech, scrounge or purchase a 9" long piece of 2" diameter heavy-walled steel pipe. —  15_ImprovisedWeapons
  • Ignited from the breech, the rear end of the charge burns first, often blowing half consumed grains out of the gun with the shell. —  June, 1943
  • When the head or base of the cartridge case moves rearward, it strikes what is called the breech face of the firearm. —  28_EvidenceCollectionAtCrimeScenes
  • Driving bands help to provide a gas seal in the breech, as well as imparting rotation to the projectile to enhance stability. —  Flak - German Anti-aircraft Defenses 1914-1945
  • Olmec, naked but for a breech-clout, was fighting before his throne, and as the adventurers entered, Tascela ran from an inner chamber with a sword in her hand. —  Conan -- The Stories from Weird Tales (1932-1936)
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English brech, from Old English brēc, pl. of brōc, leg covering, Gaulish brāca, hose, trousers.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English breech, breche, brech, also unassibilated breke, brek, properly plural and meaning ‘breeches,’ the covering of the breech (whence the double plural breeches, the now prevalent form in that sense: see breeches), from Anglo-Saxon brēc, also brǣc (plural of the unrecorded singular *brōc), breeches (the additional sense of ‘breech,’ given by Bosworth, rests on a doubtful translation of a single passage), = OFries. brōk, plural brēk, = Dutch broek = Middle Low German brōk, Low German brook = Old High German bruoh, Middle High German bruoch, German bruch = Icel.brēk, plural brœkr, breeches (Swedish bracka, breeches, brok, nautical, breeching), = Old Danish brog, breeches, hose, Danish brog, nautical, breeching. Cf. Latin brācœ, plural, breeches (later Italian braca = Spanish Portuguese braga = Provencal braya = Old French braie, breeches, French braie, a swaddling-band, later English bray and brail, q.v.), regarded as of Celtic origin; cf. Breton bragez; but the Gaelic Irish brigis, breeches, is perhaps from English The relation of the Teutonic forms to the Celtic is uncertain.
  2. from breech, n.
 

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/britʃ/
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