Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BREC'CIA-TED, a.

Consisting of angular fragments, cemented together.

BRECH'ITE, n.

A fossil allied to the Alcyons. It is cylindrical, striated, and its thick end conical, pierced with holes and crested. – Fr. Dict. of Nat. Hist.

BRED, pp.

of Breed. Generated; produced; contrived; educated.

BREDE, n.

A braid. [Not used.] – Addison.

BREECH, n. [brich. See Breach and Break.]

1. The lower part of the body behind.
2. Breeches; but rarely used in the singular. – Shak.
3. The hinder part of any thing. – Johnson.
4. The large thick end of a cannon or other fire-arm.

BREECH, v.t.

1. To put into breeches. – Johnson.
2. To whip on the breech. – Massinger.
3. To fasten with breeching.

BREECH'ES, n. [plur. brich'es. Sax. bræc, bræccæ; D. broek; Arm. braga, brages; It. brace, brachesse or braghesse; Port. and Sp. bragas; Fr. braies; Ir. brog; Low L. braccæ; Dan. brog, breeches, and broged, of various colors, mixed, variegated; W. bryçan, a spotted covering, Scotch plaid; bryc, variegated with colors. “Sarmatæ totum braccati corpus.” Mela, 2. 1. See Plin. 3. 4. Herod. lib. 7. Strabo, lib. 15. Ovid. Trist. 5. 7. Cluv. Germ. Ant. 1. 16. Pelloutier, Hist. Celt. 1. 30. The word seems to be from the root of break, and to denote, diverse in color, variegated, like freckled. See Freckle.]

A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs. It is now a close garment; but the word formerly was used for a loose garment, now called trowsers, laxæ braccæ. – Ovid. To wear the breeches is, in the wife, to usurp the authority of the husband. – Johnson.

BREECH'ING, n.

In gunnery, on board of ships, a strong rope fastened to the cascabel or pommelion of a cannon by a thimble, and clenched to ring-bolts in the ship's side to prevent it from recoiling too much in battle. – Mar. Dict.

BREECH'ING, ppr. [brich'ing.]

1. Furnishing with breeches, or with a breech.
2. Whipping the breech; and as a noun, a whipping. – Marlow.

BREED, n.

1. A race or progeny from the same parents or stock.
2. A cast; a kind; a race of men or other animals, which have an alliance by nativity, or some distinctive qualities in common; as, a breed of men in a particular country; a breed of horses or sheep. Applied to men, it is not elegant. We use race.
3. Progeny; offspring: applied to other things than animals. – Shak.
4. A number produced at once; a hatch; a brood; but for this, brood is generally used. – Grew.

BREED, v.i.

1. To produce, as a fetus; to bear and nourish, as in pregnancy; as a female breeds with pain.
2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth; as, children or young breed in the matrix.
3. To have birth; to be produced; as, fish breed in rivers.
4. To be increased by a new production. But could youth last, and love still breed. – Ralegh.
5. To raise a breed; as, to choose the best species of swine to breed from.

BREED, v.t. [pret. and pp. bred. Sax. bredan, brædan, to warm, to dilate, to open, to spread; D. broeden, to brood; Ger. brüten, to brood; Dan. breder, to spread, dilate, unfold; W. brwd, warm; brydiaw, to warm, to heat. Class Rd. See Broad.]

1. To generate; to engender; to hatch; to produce the young of any species of animals. I think it is never used of plants, and in animals is always applied to the mother or dam.
2. To produce within or upon the body; as, to breed teeth; to breed worms.
3. To cause; to occasion; to produce; to originate. Intemperance and lust breed infirmities. – Tillotson. Ambition breeds factions. – Anon.
4. To contrive; to hatch; to produce by plotting. Had he a heart and a brain to breed it in? – Shak.
5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds a race of stout men.
6. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; often, but unnecessarily, followed by up; as to breed a son to an occupation; a man bred at a university. To breed up is vulgar.
7. To bring up; to nurse and foster; to take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to provide for, train and conduct; to instruct the mind and form the manners in youth. To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed. – Dryden.

BREED'-BATE, n.

One that breeds or originates quarrels. [Not in use.] – Shak.

BREED'ER, n.

1. The female that breeds or produces, whether human or other animal.
2. The person who educates or brings up; that which brings up. Italy and Rome have been the best breeders of worthy men. – Ascham.
3. That which produces. Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. – Shak.
4. One who raises a breed; one who takes care to raise a particular breed, or breeds, as of horses or cattle. – Temple.

BREED'ING, n.

1. The act of generating or producing.
2. The raising of a breed or breeds; as, the farmer attends to the breeding of sheep.
3. Nurture; education; instruction; formation of manners. She had her breeding at my father's charge. – Shak.
4. By way of eminence, manners; knowledge of ceremony; deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life. Hence good breeding is politeness, or the qualifications which constitute genteel deportment. – Encyc.

BREED'ING, ppr.

Bearing and nourishing, as a fetus; engendering; producing; educating.

BREEZE, n.¹ [Sax. briosa, from its sound resembling a breeze.]

A genus of flies or insects, technically called Tabanus. There are many species, but the most noted is the Bovinus, great horse-fly, whose mouth is armed with two hooks, which penetrate the akin of an animal, while with a proboscis, like a sting, it sucks the blood.

BREEZE, n.² [It. brezza, a cold windy mist; Sp. brisa, a breeze; Sw. brusa, to be fervid, to boil, to murmur; Dan. bruser, to rush, roar or foam, to rise in waves; bruusen, the rustling of the wind, a humming or buzzing, fermentation. In French sea language, brise, a breeze; Gr. βραζω, and βρασσω, to boil; Fr. brasser, to brew; W. brys, hasty, from rhys, a rushing. These words seem all to have a common root. See Rush.]

1. A light wind; a gentle gale. From land a gentle breeze arose at night. – Dryden.
2. A shifting wind, that blows from the sea or from the land, for a certain time, by night or by day. Such breezes are common in the tropical regions, and in a good degree regular. The wind from the sea is called a sea breeze, and that from the land, a land breeze. In general, the sea breeze blows in the day time, and the land breeze at night. The like breezes are common, in the summer months, in the temperate latitudes.

BREEZE, v.i.

To blow gently; a word common among seamen. For now the breathing airs, from ocean born, / Breeze up the bay, and lead the lively morn. – Barlow.

BREEZE'LESS, a.

Motionless; destitute of breezes. – Shenstone.

BREEZ'Y, a.

1. Fanned with gentle winds or breezes; as, the breezy shore. – Pope.
2. Subject to frequent breezes. – Gray.

BRE'HON, n.

In Irish, a judge. In ancient times, the general laws of Ireland were called Brehon laws, unwritten like the common law of England. These laws were abolished by statute of Edward III. – Encyc. Blackstone.

BREIS'LA-KITE, n.

A newly discovered Vesuvian mineral, resembling a brownish or reddish brown down, which lines the small bubbles found in the lava of Scalla, and is found in cavities of the lava of Olebano; named from Breislak, a celebrated Italian naturalist. – Journ. of Science.

BREME, a. [Sax. bremman, to murmur, to fret; L. fremo.]

Cruel; sharp. [Not used.] – Chaucer.

BREN, v.t. [Sax. brennan, to burn.]

To burn. [Obs.] – Spenser.