> as lemmas

1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. cccxli. 217/2 Whiche of them y^t euer should breake this peace..shoulde rynne in the sentence of the pope.

?1570 Homelie against Disobedience & Wylfull Rebellion i. sig. Biv Subiectes..who..take armor wickedly..to breake the publike peace.

1575 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 361 The peace might be broken.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) i. iv. 57 Fye Lords, that you being supreme Magistrates, Thus contumeliously should breake the Peace . View more context for this quotation

a1680 S. Butler Genuine Remains (1759) I. 217 To maintain their own Hypotheses, Broke one another's Blockheads, and the Peace.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. vii. ix. 63 He would exceed his Authority by committing the Girl to Bridewell, as there had been no Attempt to break the Peace . View more context for this quotation

1793 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. (ed. 12) 343 He may apprehend, and commit to prison, all persons who break the peace.

1831 Lincoln Herald 13 May That intolerable Italian has done more to break the peace of this country than all the radicals and riotists in the last quarter of a century.

1886 Dict. National Biogr. at Burgh, William de It was decreed that each baron should punish his own servants if they broke the peace.

1940 S. H. Holbrook Ethan Allen ii. 30 Hauled into local court before Justice Hutchinson, Ethan was charged with breaking the peace and with blasphemy.

1991 T. Horwitz Baghdad without Map iii. 30 The custom of kharab wa-turab—the right to ‘lay waste’ to an enemy who breaks the peace without paying blood money.