English Online Dictionary. What means breach? What does breach mean?
English
Etymology
From Middle English breche, from Old English bryċe (“fracture, breach”) and brǣċ (“breach, breaking, destruction”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruki, from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”) and *brēkō (“breaking”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɹiːtʃ/
- Rhymes: -iːtʃ
- Homophone: breech
Noun
breach (plural breaches)
- A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee / embankment; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence
- Synonyms: break, rupture, fissure
- The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
- (law) A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment.
- A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling out.
- (figurative) A difference in opinions, social class, etc.
- A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves
- Synonyms: surge, surf
- A breaking out upon; an assault.
- (archaic) A bruise; a wound.
- (archaic) A hernia; a rupture.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
breach (third-person singular simple present breaches, present participle breaching, simple past and past participle breached)
- (transitive) To make a breach in.
- (transitive) To violate or break.
- (transitive, nautical, of the sea) To break into a ship or into a coastal defence.
- (intransitive, of a whale) To leap out of the water.
- (law, informal, transitive, usually passive) To charge or convict (someone) of breaching the terms of a bail, probation, recognizance, etc.
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
- Béchar, Bacher