adv. prop. phrase also 5–6 abrest. [f. A prep.1 in + BREAST.]
1. With breasts in a line, or with fronts in a line so as to compose as it were one breast of a wave when in motion; side by side (in advancing).
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vi. 17. My soule shall thine keepe company to heauen: Tarry (sweet soule) for mine, then flye a-brest.
1675. Lond. Gaz., mi. 2. The Mines succeeded very well, and made a breach, that 16 Men might enter a-breast.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xiv. 205. A pass … so narrow that but two carts could go abreast along it.
† b. Also written variously as on a breast, of breast, in a breast, breast-a-breast.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xx. 271. Owt they Comen Al On Abrest.
1567. Maplet, Greene Forest, 68. Another goeth and taketh vpon him his [the leading crane’s] office … and that other commeth to their place which be of breast.
1728. G. Carleton, Mem. Eng. Officer, 40. We could but very rarely go two on a Breast. Ibid., 69. At the End of our March all our Powder-Waggons were plac’d breast a-breast.
1801. R. Gall, Tint Quey, 179. Then a’ at ance (it is nae jest) Moved slowly forit in a breast.
2. Naut. With the ships equally distant, and parallel to each other, so that each is at right angles to the line of the squadron.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece (1715), III. xx. 150. If the winds were high … sailing one by one; but at other Times they went Three or more in a Breast.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. iv. 144. The English, having the wind, came down a-breast.
3. Naut. ‘Abreast, within-board, signifies on a parallel with the beam.’ Smyth, Sailor’s Wd.-Bk.
4. Abreast of: in a position parallel to, or alongside of something stationary; also fig. (In nautical lang. of is frequently omitted.)
1748. Anson, Voyage (ed. 4), III. vi. 466. We were a-breast of a chain of Islands.
1833. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., vi. 22. The tide was about three quarters ebb, when the barge arrived abreast of Millbank.
1845. Lowell, Crisis, Wks. 1879, 671. They must upward still, and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth.
1857. Tomes, Amer. in Japan, xv. 356. The Island of Ohosima, about two miles distant abreast the ships.
5. Abreast with: advancing on or to a level with, keeping up with; often fig. as, to keep abreast with the thought of the age. In naut. lang. with is sometimes omitted.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VII. 397. My Observations, as printed, goe abreast in parallel columes with those of His Highnesse.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., xxvii. 96. [We] were soon abreast and close to the wherry, pulling with us down the stream.
1860. Smiles, Self-Help, iii. 59. Nothing else could have enabled him to keep abreast with the flood of communications that poured in.
