Both Uses of
breech
in
Animal Farm
- A fat red-faced man in check breeches and gaiters, who looked like a publican, was stroking her nose and feeding her with sugar.†
p. 46.9 *breeches = pants
- It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth — no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat, ratcatcher breeches, and leather leggings, while his favorite sow appeared in the watered silk dress which Mrs. Jones had been used to wear on Sundays.†
p. 135.4
Definitions:
-
(1)
(breech) rear
Most commonly used today in the phrase breech birth in reference to a baby who comes out of the birth canal butt-first rather than head-first.More-archaic senses seen in classic literature include:- breechcloth -- a form of loincloth consisting in a strip of material passed between the thighs and held up in front and behind by a belt or string
- breeches -- pants
- a cannon's breech -- the rear of a gun
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
A breech birth refers to a child born bottom first. A less common sense of breech refers to the lower part of a pulley block.