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BREECH
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Opening in the rear of the barrel of a gun where bullets can be loaded
Synonyms:
breech; rear of barrel; rear of tube
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("breech" is a kind of...):
opening (a vacant or unobstructed space that is man-made)
Meronyms (parts of "breech"):
breech closer; breechblock (a metal block in breech-loading firearms that is withdrawn to insert a cartridge and replaced to close the breech before firing)
Holonyms ("breech" is a part of...):
barrel; cask (a cylindrical container that holds liquids)
Context examples:
And if you’ve money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can do anything! Now, you don’t think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a China coaster.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There were milkmaids and shepherdesses, with brightly colored bodices and golden spots all over their gowns; and princesses with most gorgeous frocks of silver and gold and purple; and shepherds dressed in knee breeches with pink and yellow and blue stripes down them, and golden buckles on their shoes; and princes with jeweled crowns upon their heads, wearing ermine robes and satin doublets; and funny clowns in ruffled gowns, with round red spots upon their cheeks and tall, pointed caps. And, strangest of all, these people were all made of china, even to their clothes, and were so small that the tallest of them was no higher than Dorothy's knee.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a mouse’s skin.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Dennin threw open the breech of the shot-gun, ejecting the empty shells.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I stopped, and, picking a cartridge from my pocket, I opened the breech of my gun.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I looked out for Mr. Barkis, but he was not there; and instead of him a fat, short-winded, merry-looking, little old man in black, with rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees of his breeches, black stockings, and a broad-brimmed hat, came puffing up to the coach window, and said: Master Copperfield?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
His skin, on face and body, was darker and harsher than that of his youthful antagonist, but he looked tougher and harder, an effect which was increased by the sombre colour of his stockings and breeches.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But, as princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my stockings and breeches in a sad condition.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then the other, clicking open the breech to re-load, snapping it to again, while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughter as I did so.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He coughed to that extent, and his breath eluded all his attempts to recover it with that obstinacy, that I fully expected to see his head go down behind the counter, and his little black breeches, with the rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees, come quivering up in a last ineffectual struggle.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
