Forms: 5 brek-yn, 6 breche, britch, 6– breech. [f. prec. sb.]
1. To cover or clothe with, or as with, breeches; to put (a boy) into breeches. † To breech it (obs.): to serve as breeches.
1468. Medulla Gram., in Cath. Angl., 42. Bracco, to brekyn.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 167. Breche hir with plate and mayle And for all that … She shall desceyve the.
1612. Rowlands, Knaue of Harts, 13. Let vs haue … French Doublet, and the Spanish Hose to breech it.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, liii. Incidents which occurred about the period when the hero was breeched.
fig. 1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 122. Their Daggers Vnmannerly breech’d with gore.
† 2. To whip on the buttocks; to flog. Obs.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (1884), 33. The bois must be britch[t].
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong., Fesser, to breech boyes, to scourge them.
1639. Massinger, Unnat. Comb., I. i. Tales out of school! Take heed, you will be breeched.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxiv. Thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.
3. Naut. To secure (a cannon) by a breeching.
1757. Lett. fr. Capt. Gilchrist, 26 July (Record Office MS.). By breaching my aftermost guns aft.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 28. ‘Now … we’ll breech these guns.’
