different between beech vs breech

English

Wikispecies

Etymology

From Middle English beche, from Old English b??e, from Proto-West Germanic *b?kij? (“beech”). Doublet of buky.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?ch, IPA^(key): /bi?t??/
• Rhymes: -i?t?
• Homophone: beach

Noun

beech (plural beeches)

1. A tree of the genus Fagus having a smooth, light grey trunk, oval, pointed leaves and many branches.
2. The wood of the beech tree.

Synonyms

• beech tree

Derived terms

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English breche, from Old English br??, from Proto-Germanic *br?kiz pl, from Proto-Germanic *br?ks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Alemannic German Brüch, Swedish brok.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /b?i?t?/
• Rhymes: -i?t?
• Homophone: breach

Noun

breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)

1. (historical, now only in the plural) A garment whose purpose is to cover or clothe the buttocks. [from 11th c.]
2. (now rare) The buttocks or backside. [from 16th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 157:

     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 […]

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book III ch viii

     "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. (firearms) The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber. [from 16th c.]

   Coordinate term: muzzle

4. (nautical) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat.
5. A breech birth.

Derived terms

• breech-loading

Translations

Adverb

breech (not comparable)

1. With the hips coming out before the head.

Adjective

breech (not comparable)

1. Born, or having been born, breech.

Translations

Verb

breech (third-person singular simple present breeches, present participle breeching, simple past and past participle breeched)

1. (dated, transitive) To dress in breeches. (especially) To dress a boy in breeches or trousers for the first time (the breeching ceremony).
   • 1748-1832, Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 10:

     […] it occurred before I was breeched, and I was breeched at three years and a quarter old;
2. (dated, transitive) To beat or spank on the buttocks.
3. (transitive) To fit or furnish with a breech.

4. (transitive) To fasten with breeching.
5. (poetic, transitive, obsolete) To cover as if with breeches.

Derived terms

See also

• breeches

Further reading

• breeches on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Becher