All 3 Uses of
breech
in
Middlemarch
- I remember they made me laugh uncommonly—there's a droll bit about a postilion's breeches.†
Chpt 3 *breeches = pants
- The mossy thatch of the cow-shed, the broken gray barn-doors, the pauper laborers in ragged breeches who had nearly finished unloading a wagon of corn into the barn ready for early thrashing;†
Chpt 4
- His coat and breeches were the best he had, and he would not have been wearing them on this weekday occasion if he had not been to market and returned later than usual, having given himself the rare treat of dining at the public table of the Blue Bull.†
Chpt 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.