Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter B - Page 78

Breach (n.) A breaking of waters, as over a vessel; the waters themselves; surge; surf.

Breach (n.) A breaking up of amicable relations; rupture.

Breach (n.) A bruise; a wound.

Breach (n.) A hernia; a rupture.

Breach (n.) A breaking out upon; an assault.

Breached (imp. & p. p.) of Breach

Breaching (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Breach

Breach (v. t.) To make a breach or opening in; as, to breach the walls of a city.

Breach (v. i.) To break the water, as by leaping out; -- said of a whale.

Breachy (a.) Apt to break fences or to break out of pasture; unruly; as, breachy cattle.

Bread (a.) To spread.

Bread (n.) An article of food made from flour or meal by moistening, kneading, and baking.

Bread (n.) Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.

Bread (v. t.) To cover with bread crumbs, preparatory to cooking; as, breaded cutlets.

Breadbasket (n.) The stomach.

Breadcorn () Corn of grain of which bread is made, as wheat, rye, etc.

Breaded (a.) Braided

Breaden (a.) Made of bread.

Breadfruit (n.) The fruit of a tree (Artocarpus incisa) found in the islands of the Pacific, esp. the South Sea islands. It is of a roundish form, from four to six or seven inches in diameter, and, when baked, somewhat resembles bread, and is eaten as food, whence the name.

Breadfruit (n.) The tree itself, which is one of considerable size, with large, lobed leaves. Cloth is made from the bark, and the timber is used for many purposes. Called also breadfruit tree and bread tree.

Breadless (a.) Without bread; destitute of food.

Breadroot (n.) The root of a leguminous plant (Psoralea esculenta), found near the Rocky Mountains. It is usually oval in form, and abounds in farinaceous matter, affording sweet and palatable food.

Breadstuff (n.) Grain, flour, or meal of which bread is made.

Breadth (a.) Distance from side to side of any surface or thing; measure across, or at right angles to the length; width.

Breadthless (a.) Without breadth.

Breadthways (ads.) Breadthwise.

Breadthwise (ads.) In the direction of the breadth.

Breadthwinner (n.) The member of a family whose labor supplies the food of the family; one who works for his living.

broke (imp.) of Break

Brake () of Break

Broken (p. p.) of Break

Broke () of Break

Breaking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Break

Break (v. t.) To strain apart; to sever by fracture; to divide with violence; as, to break a rope or chain; to break a seal; to break an axle; to break rocks or coal; to break a lock.

Break (v. t.) To lay open as by breaking; to divide; as, to break a package of goods.

Break (v. t.) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.

Break (v. t.) To infringe or violate, as an obligation, law, or promise.

Break (v. t.) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey.

Break (v. t.) To destroy the completeness of; to remove a part from; as, to break a set.

Break (v. t.) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce; as, the cavalry were not able to break the British squares.

Break (v. t.) To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments.

Break (v. t.) To exchange for other money or currency of smaller denomination; as, to break a five dollar bill.

Break (v. t.) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of; as, to break flax.

Break (v. t.) To weaken or impair, as health, spirit, or mind.

Break (v. t.) To diminish the force of; to lessen the shock of, as a fall or blow.

Break (v. t.) To impart, as news or information; to broach; -- with to, and often with a modified word implying some reserve; as, to break the news gently to the widow; to break a purpose cautiously to a friend.

Break (v. t.) To tame; to reduce to subjection; to make tractable; to discipline; as, to break a horse to the harness or saddle.

Break (v. t.) To destroy the financial credit of; to make bankrupt; to ruin.

Break (v. t.) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.

Break (v. i.) To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder.

Break (v. i.) To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag.

Break (v. i.) To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn.

Break (v. i.) To burst forth violently, as a storm.

Break (v. i.) To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking.

Break (v. i.) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.

Break (v. i.) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking.

Break (v. i.) To fall in business; to become bankrupt.

Break (v. i.) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop.

Break (v. i.) To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty.

Break (v. i.) To fall out; to terminate friendship.

Break (v. t.) An opening made by fracture or disruption.

Break (v. t.) An interruption of continuity; change of direction; as, a break in a wall; a break in the deck of a ship.

Break (v. t.) A projection or recess from the face of a building.

Break (v. t.) An opening or displacement in the circuit, interrupting the electrical current.

Break (v. t.) An interruption; a pause; as, a break in friendship; a break in the conversation.

Break (v. t.) An interruption in continuity in writing or printing, as where there is an omission, an unfilled line, etc.

Break (v. t.) The first appearing, as of light in the morning; the dawn; as, the break of day; the break of dawn.

Break (v. t.) A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.

Break (v. t.) A device for checking motion, or for measuring friction. See Brake, n. 9 & 10.

Break (n.) See Commutator.

Breakable (a.) Capable of being broken.

Breakage (n.) The act of breaking; a break; a breaking; also, articles broken.

Breakage (n.) An allowance or compensation for things broken accidentally, as in transportation or use.

Breakbone fever () See Dengue.

Break-circuit (n.) A key or other device for breaking an electrical circuit.

Breakdown (n.) The act or result of breaking down, as of a carriage; downfall.

Breakdown (n.) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the colored people of the Southern United States, and so called, perhaps, because the exercise is continued until most of those who take part in it break down.

Breakdown (n.) Any rude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.

Breaker (n.) One who, or that which, breaks.

Breaker (n.) Specifically: A machine for breaking rocks, or for breaking coal at the mines; also, the building in which such a machine is placed.

Breaker (n.) A small water cask.

Breaker (n.) A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sand bank, or a rock or reef near the surface.

Breakfast (n.) The first meal in the day, or that which is eaten at the first meal.

Breakfast (n.) A meal after fasting, or food in general.

breakfasted (imp. & p. p.) of Breakfast

Breakfasting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Breakfast

Breakfast (v. i.) To break one's fast in the morning; too eat the first meal in the day.

Breakfast (v. t.) To furnish with breakfast.

Breakman (n.) See Brakeman.

Breakneck (n.) A fall that breaks the neck.

Breakneck (n.) A steep place endangering the neck.

Breakneck (a.) Producing danger of a broken neck; as, breakneck speed.

Break-up (n.) Disruption; a separation and dispersion of the parts or members; as, a break-up of an assembly or dinner party; a break-up of the government.

Breakwater (n.) Any structure or contrivance, as a mole, or a wall at the mouth of a harbor, to break the force of waves, and afford protection from their violence.

Bream (n.) A European fresh-water cyprinoid fish of the genus Abramis, little valued as food. Several species are known.

Bream (n.) An American fresh-water fish, of various species of Pomotis and allied genera, which are also called sunfishes and pondfishes. See Pondfish.

Bream (n.) A marine sparoid fish of the genus Pagellus, and allied genera. See Sea Bream.

Breamed (imp. & p. p.) of Bream

Breaming (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bream

Bream (v. t.) To clean, as a ship's bottom of adherent shells, seaweed, etc., by the application of fire and scraping.

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