| 释义 |
▪ I. breach, n.|briːtʃ|
Also 3–6 breche, 5 bryg, 6 Sc. brache, 7 bretch, ? 8 breech.
[ME. breche, partly perh. repr. OE. bryce, brice (:—OTeut. *bruki-z from *brek-: see break), which however gave in early ME. bruche; partly a. F. brèche, in same sense but chiefly concrete. The obvious relation of break, breach, as in speak, speech, would tend to make breche, breach the prevailing form.]
I. The action of breaking.
†1.
a. The physical action of breaking; the fact of being broken; breakage, fracture. Obs.
a1000Guthlac 670 (Gr.) Ne sy him banes bryce. a1300Cursor M. 8220 (Gött.) Sua depe the rotis samen kest miht ne man þeden winne widuten breche [v.r. brekyng]. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 346 By violence of bretch and ruins great. 1629Gaule Holy Madn. 295 The casuall breach of a Crystall Glasse. 1676Hale Contempl. i. 52 The breach of a vein..may put a period to all those pleasures.
†b. breach of the day: ‘break’ of day. Obs.
1579Fenton Guicciard. xiv. (1599) 667 The assault began about the breach of the day.
2. The breaking of waves on a coast or over a vessel; hence, the nautical phr. clean breach, clear breach.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. ii. i. 23 Before you tooke me from breach of the sea. 1719De Foe Crusoe iii, She [the boat] would be dashed in..pieces by the breach of the sea. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 129 Clear breach, the waves rolling clean over without breaking..Clean-breach, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.
3. fig. The breaking of a command, rule, engagement, duty, or of any legal or moral bond or obligation; violation, infraction: common in such phrases as breach of contract, covenant, faith, promise, trust.
[c1025Eccl. Laws of Cnut 24 Wið æȝhwylcne æwbryce.] 1382Wyclif Jer. iii. 13 To the Lord thi God thou hast do lawe breche. c1440York Myst. v. 143 Lorde, Eue garte me do wronge and to þat bryg me brought. 1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, xvii, Attempted the breche or violacion of the same statutes. 1573G. Harvey Lett.-bk. (1884) 13 Better then the breach of ani custum. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 170 Receiue such welcome..As Honour, without breach of Honour may Make tender of. 1605― Lear i. ii. 162 Nuptial breaches. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus iii. 1 Who..liue in the breach of Gods commaundement. 1636Massinger Bashful Lover iv. ii, A virtue, and not to be blended With vicious breach of faith. 1659Hammond On Ps. xxv. 7 The breaches innumerable, wherewith I have..offended against thee. 1711Steele Spect. No. 262 ⁋7 Nor shall I look upon it as any Breach of Charity. 1764Reid Inquiry ii. §6. 109 They can..break them and be punished for the breach. 1803Wellington in Gurw. Disp. II. 174 In breach of your promises to me. 1833H. Martineau Manch. Strike iv. 53 Convicted of a breach of contract. 1834Arnold Life & Cor. (1844) I. vii. 379 What it would be a breach of duty in me to omit. 1879Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvi. 370 The breach of the truce by the Scots.
b. spec. and techn., as breach of arrestment, illegal disposal of property which has been ‘attached’, or placed under the control of a law-court; breach of close, unlawful entry upon private ground, trespass; breach of (the) peace, an infringement or violation of the public peace by an affray, riot, or other disturbance; breach of pound, the action of breaking into a pound or similar enclosure without right or warrant; breach of prison, escape of a prisoner from confinement; breach of privilege, a violation of the rights of a privileged body; breach of promise, gen. as in prec. sense; spec. = breach of promise to marry.
1590Shakes. Com. Err. iv. i. 49 You vse this dalliance to excuse Your breach of promise to the Porpentine. 1613[see promise n. 1]. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres ii. 30 They..might fairly declaim against [it] by the name of Breach of Priviledge. 1671F. Philipps Reg. Necess. 50 For the breach of the peace 120 shillings. 1786Paley Mor. Philos. (ed. 2) III. i. xvi. 164 God will punish false swearing with more severity than a simple lie, or breach of promise. 1817Parl. Deb. 796 The Speaker said..the House should pronounce, whether the passage in the work..was or was not a breach of privilege. 1865Derby Mercury 1 Mar., Alleged contempt of that House, and a breach of its privileges. Mod. The damages in a breach-of-promise case. 1895G. B. Shaw Shaw on Theatre (1958) 61 Trial by Jury is..unintelligible except as a satire on..the breach-of-promise suit. 1949M. Mead Male & Female xv. 299 Breach-of-promise cases are a silly excrescence in a world in which women do half the proposing.
c. In colloq. use, short for breach of promise.
1840Dickens Old C. Shop viii, There's the chance of an action for breach. 1905Daily Chron. 16 Aug. 6/7 ‘The breach action was not brought by her,’ said Mr. Burnett, opening the present proceedings on behalf of the major. Ibid., At the breach trial.
†4. An irruption into; an infringement upon; an inroad, injurious assault. Obs.
1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 100 The Axiomaes of Aristotle..have sodeinley made..a breach into my mind. 1611Bible 1 Chron. xiii. 11 The Lord had made a breach vpon Vzza. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler 58 Your connivence with the Irish butcheries, your forgetfull breaches upon the Parliament. a1674Clarendon (J.) This breach upon kingly power. 1751Addison Freeholder No. 13. 77 Innocent of the great Breach which is made upon Government.
5. a. A breaking of relations (of union or continuity).
1625Bacon Unity in Relig., Ess. (Arb.) 423 Nothing, doth so much..drive Men out of the Church, as Breach of Unity. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. 162 By the breach and dissolution of..the relation itself. 1775De Lolme Eng. Const. i. i. (1784) 14 They completed the breach of those feeble ties. Mod. It could not be done without a breach of continuity.
b. absol. A break-up of friendly relations; rupture, separation, difference, disagreement, quarrel.
1573G. Harvey Lett.-bk. (1884) 17 A litle breach betwixt thes twoo and me was the tru and onli caus of al thes sturs. 1580Baret Alv. B 1201 Breach of friendes. 1604Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 238 There's falne betweene him, & my Lord, An vnkind breach. 1713Burnet Own Time (1766) II. 87 A great breach was like to follow. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. ix. 186 The nearest approach to a breach was..when their monument of stones was mistaken..for an altar.
6. The leaping of a whale clear out of the water.
a1843Penny Cycl. XXVII. 294/2 The breach may be seen in a clear day from the mast-head at a distance of six miles.
II. The product of breaking.
7. A physically broken or ruptured condition of anything; a broken, fractured, damaged, or injured spot, place, or part; an injury.
†a. of the body. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. lv. (1495) 270 Yf that breche [hernia] is grete and olde and wyth brekyng of the synewe it is sondred vneth or neuer. 1559Morwyng Evonym. 118 It cureth also fistulas, old breaches, and temporall byles. 1665G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 395 Shewing him his hand and his other breaches.
b. A disrupted place, gap, or fissure, caused by the separation of continuous parts; a break.
1530Palsgr. 201/1 Breche where water breke in, breche. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 320 The yearth hath many great chynkes or breaches. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia v. 174 The salt water..entred at the large breaches of their poore wooden castle. 1653Manton Exp. James iii. 5 Small breaches in a sea-bank let in great inundations. 1750Johnson Rambl. No. 79 §11 The crew implore the liberty of repairing their breaches.
c. esp. ‘A gap in a fortification made by a battery’ (J.). Hence to stand in the breach (often fig.).
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 55 To come off the Breach, with his Pike bent brauely. 1598Barret Theor. Warres v. iv. 138 To ruinate their Curtine, and make good breaches. 1611Bible Ps. cvi. 23 Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach [Coverdale, gap]. 1665Manley Grotius' Low-C. Warrs 363 The Town was easily gained by Scaling Ladders, and Breaches. 1712Steele Spect. No. 428 ⁋2 No Soldier entering a Breach adventures more for Honour. 1799Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. I. 30 On the 3rd of May the breach appeared to be practicable. 1814Scott Wav. xiii, Being the first to mount the breach.
d. fig.
1605Shakes. Lear iv. vii. 15 Cure this great breach in his abused Nature. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Ded. Let., To bind up the great breaches of my little fortune. 1657― in Four C. Eng. Lett. 106 By your wise counsel and comfort stand in the breaches of your own family. 1710Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 397 An unhappy Breach in my Health..forc'd me to seek these foreign Climates. 1722De Foe Moll Fl. (1840) 132 Vice breaks in at the breaches of decency. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xviii. 63 To heal the breach in his wounded honour.
†8. Surf made by the sea breaking over rocks; broken water, breakers. Obs.
1624Capt. Smith Virginia (1629) 19 We found many shoules and breaches. 1626― Accid. Yng. Seamen 18 A shoule, a ledge of rockes, a breach, a shallow water. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4380/3 The Royal Anne..saw several Breaches, and soon after, the Rocks above Water.
†9. A break in a coast, a bay, harbour. Obs. Cf. break n.1 7 b.
1611Bible Judges v. 17 Asher continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches [Vulg. portubus, Wyclif hauens].
†10. A break in continuity, an interruption, interval; a division marked by breaks or intervals.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xix. (Arb.) 57 By breaches or diuisions to be more commodiously song to the harpe. Ibid. xxvi. 65 This Epithalamie was deuided by breaches into three partes..The first breach was song at the first parte of the night. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. iv. 35 And all her sister Nymphes..Supplide her sobbing breaches with sad complement.
11. A condition of broken relations; a gap in sentiment or sympathy.
1745Wesley Answ. Ch. 1, I do not want..to widen the Breach between us. 1816Scott Antiq. v, The breach was speedily made up between them. 1863Bright Sp. Amer. (1876) 138 Create an everlasting breach between the people of England and the people of the United States of America.
12. A piece of land broken up by the plough. dial.
1594Plat Jewel-ho. i. 43 marg., Erith breaches [that surrounded leuell at Erith]. ― New Sorte of Soyle 44 That exceeding fertilitie which I have herd commended in those two breaches, even by the severall farmers thereof.
1864E. Capern Devon Provinc., Breach, a plot of land prepared for another crop.
▪ II. breach, v.|briːtʃ|
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To make a breach in (a wall, defence, natural boundary, etc.); to break through.
1803Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. II. 479 If the wall..should be breached when the place shall be stormed. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. iv. 149 The English had breached the fort. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1852) 477 Every reef of the fringing class is breached by a narrow gateway in front of the smallest rivulet. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 193 It often happens that the lava..breaches one side of the conical hill.
b. fig.; spec. in Financial and Stock Exchange jargon, to go beyond (above or below) (a figure). Cf. break v. 9 c.
1547Boorde Brev. Health ccliii. 85 b, [Obliviousness] may come to yonge men and women when theyr mynde is bryched.
1979Economist 23 June 81/1 When the ecu limits are breached, the offending currency is supposed to take action. 1982Observer 17 Oct. 18/3 London's ‘FT’ 30-share index breached the 600 mark. 1984Economist 10 Mar. 52/2 So far, Mr Nakasone has not dared to breach the 1% mark.
†2. intr. To make or cause a breach; to quarrel, separate. Obs.
1573Tusser Husb. 2nd Ep. Ded. xi, At first for want of teaching, At first for trifles breaching. 1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. I. ix. 52 If the Church will breach (with the Anabaptists).
3. Naut. Of whales: To leap out of the water.
a1843See breaching. 1854 Chamb. Journ. I. 53 ‘There she blows again!.. There she breaches.’ 1866Kingsley Herew. v. 115 They saw a whale spouting and breaching.
▪ III. breach(e
obs. form of breech. |