breach 
peace, as by a riot, affray, or any tumult which is contrary 
to law and injurious to the public welfare. Breach of 
trust, a violation of duty by a trustee, an executor, or 
other person in a fiduciary position. To batter In 
breach. See &att-i. = Syn. 1-4. Rupture, etc. See/i-iK- 
tin v. 2. Opening, cleft, chasm, rift, rent, fissure. 4. Mis- 
understanding, alienation, disaffection, falling out. 
breach (brech), r. [< breach, .] I. trans. To 
make a breach or opening in. 
The first bombardment had in no place succeeded in 
tn'ruclti/i" tin- walls. 
C. D. Yonge, Naval Hist, of W. Britain. 
Koaring torrents have breath'd 
The track. 31. Arnold, Rugby Chapel. 
H. intrans. To spring from the water, as a 
whale. 
When the watch at the masthead sees the whale spring 
from the water, he cries, "There she breacliet!" 
Stand. Nat. Ilitt., V. 207. 
breaching-battery (bre'ching-bat"er-i), n. See 
lniHcry. 
breachy (bre'chi), a. [< breach + -y 1 .] Apt to 
break fences ; unruly : applied to cattle. [Col- 
loq.] 
bread 1 (bred), n. [Early mod. E. also bred, < 
ME. breed, bred, < AS. bread (= OPries. brad = 
OS. brad = D. brood = MLG. brot, LG. brood 
= OHG. MHG. brot, G. brot = loel. braudh = 
Sw. Dan. brod), bread, prob., like broth 1 , q. v., 
from the root of bredwaii, etc., brew : see breu' 1 . 
The AS. bread first appears in the cpmp. hco- 
breiid, bee-bread (see bee-bread) ; it is seldom 
found alone: the usual word for 'bread' was 
hlaf, E. loaf 1 , q. v.] 1 . A kind of food made 
of the flour or meal of some species of grain, 
by kneading it (with the addition of a little 
salt, and sometimes sugar) into a dough, yeast 
being commonly added to cause fermentation 
or "lightness," and then baking it. The yeast 
causes alcoholic fermentation and the production of al- 
cohol and carbonic acid ; the latter, an expanding gas, 
pushes the particles of dough asunder, causing the bread to 
rise, and, with the alcohol, is soon expelled by the heat of 
the oven. See yeast. In mlt-rixiny bread the fermenta- 
tion is said to be carried on by bacteria. Bread is some- 
times made partly or wholly from the products uf other 
than cereal plants, as beans, lentils, chestnuts, some kinds 
of bark, etc. 
2. Figuratively, food or sustenance in general. 
Man shall not live by bread aloue. Mat. iv. 4. 
But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed. 
What then ''. is the reward of virtue bread ? 
Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 150. 
Many officers of the army were arbitrarily deprived of 
their commissions and of their bread. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
Aerated bread. See aerate. Bloody bread. See 
Moody. Bread Acts, English statutes of 1822 (3 Geo. 
IV., c. 10) and 1836 (6 and 7 Win. IV., c. 37) regulating 
the making and sale of bread, and prohibiting the adul- 
teration of bread, meal, and flour. Bread and butter, 
one's means of living. [Colloq.] 
Your quarrelling with each other upon the subject of 
bread and butter is the most usual thing in the world. 
Swift, To Duchess of ljueeusberry, Aug. 12, 1732. 
Brown bread, () Wheaten bread made from unbolted 
flour, which thus includes the bran as well as the finer 
parts of the flour : in the United States commonly called 
Graham bread, (b) In New England, wheaten or rye bread 
containing an admixture of Indian meal : a variety of it 
is called specifically Boston brown bread. Hottentot's 
bread. See Hottentot. St. John's bread, a children's 
name for ergot. Berkeley. Statute Of bread and ale, 
an English statute of 1266, better known as the amimi 
jmnis et cereiritr, regulating the sale of those commodi- 
ties. Tatar bread, the root of a cruciferous plant. 
Crambe Tatarica, cultivated for food in Hungary. To 
break bread. See break. To know on which, side 
one's bread Is buttered, see buttcri, v. 
bread 1 (bred), v. t. [< bread 1 , .] In cookerii, 
to prepare with grated bread ; cover with white 
of eggs and bread-crumbs. 
bread 2 (bred), v. t. [< ME. bretlen, < AS. briedan 
(= OS. bredian = OHG. breiten, MHG. G. breiten 
= Icel. breidhja = Sw. breda = Dan. brede = 
Goth. *braidjan, in comp. us-braidjaii), make 
broad, < brad, broad: see broad, a., and cf. 
broad, r., and broaden.'] To make broad; 
spread. Kay; Grose. [Prov. Eng.] 
bread' 2 t, . [< ME. bredc, < AS. briedii (= D. 
breedtc = OHG. breiti, MHG. G. breite = It-el. 
breidd = Sw. bredd = Dan. bredde = Goth. 
braidei), breadth, < brad, broad: see broad.'] 
Breadth. Also brede. [The older word, now 
displaced by breadth.'] 
Thoughe it be clept the Tour of Babiloyne, git natheles 
there were ordeyned with inne many Mansiouus and 
many gret dnellynge Places, in length and brede. 
Xandeville, Travels, p. 41. 
On bredet, abroad. 
Sorwe yblowe on brede. Chaucer, Troilus, i. 530. 
bread 3 (bred), v. t. [Var. of braid 1 ; < ME. brrdc. 
< AS. bredan, bregdaii : see braid 1 .'] lanet-mak- 
iinj, to form in meshes ; net. Also breathe, brede. 
To bread or breathe a net is to make a net. 
Encyc. Brit., XVII. 359. 
668 
bread 3 , brede (bred), n. [Var. of braid 1 , n.] 
A piece of embroidery; a braid. [Obsolete or 
poetical.] 
A curious brede of needlework. Drydfn, 
She every day came to him in a different dress, of the 
most beautiful shells, bugles, and breda. 
Steele, Spectator, No. 11. 
O Attic shape ! Fair attitude ! with brede 
(If marble men and maidens overwrought. 
Keati, Ode on a Grecian Urn. 
The . . . wave that rims the Carib shore 
With momentary brede of pearl and gold. 
Lowell, Sea-weed. 
bread-and-butter (bred'and-but'er), a. 1. 
Seeking bread and butter, or the means of liv- 
ing ; controlled by material wants and desires ; 
mercenary : as, the bread-and-butter brigade 
(applied to office-seekers in the United States). 
2. Eating much bread and butter, as young 
boys or girls ; hence, belonging to adolescence ; 
in the stage of growth : as, she's but a bread-and- 
butter miss. [Colloq.] 
The wishy-washy bread-and-butter period of life. 
Trollope, Barchester Towers, xli. 
bread-barge (bred'barj), . The wooden box 
or tub in which the crew of a merchant vessel 
keep their daily allowance of biscuit. 
bread-basket (bred'bas' / ket), n. 1. A basket 
for holding or carrying bread; specifically, a 
tray, generally oval in shape, used for holding 
bread at table. 2. The stomach. [Slang.] 
I ... made the sonp*maigre rumble in his bread-basket, 
ami laid him sprawling. Foote, Englishman in Paris, i. 
breadberry (bred'ber*i), . An article of diet 
for convalescents and persons in delicate health, 
made by pouring boiling water on toasted bread 
and seasoning it with sugar, etc. ; pap. 
bread-chippert (bred'chip'er), . One who 
chips or slices bread. 
Not to dispraise me; and call me pantler, and bread- 
chipper, and I know not what? Shak., 2 Hen. IV., ti. 4. 
bread-corn (bred'kdrn), n. Corn or grain of 
which bread is made, as wheat, rye, maize, etc. 
breadent (bred'n), . [< bread 1 + -en 2 .'] Made 
of bread. [Rare.] 
breadfruit (bred'frot), n. The fruit of the tree 
Artocarpus incisa. See below Breadfruit-tree. 
(a) The A rtocarpus iiwina. a native of Java and the neigh- 
boring islands, but long in cultivation in all the tropical 
islands of the Pacific, and more recently introduced in the 
West Indies and other parts of tropical America. Tilt- 
leaves are large, rough, and lobed. The fruit is composed 
of the numerous small female flowers united into one large 
fleshy mass about the size of a child's head, and is covered 
with hexagonal marks externally, which are the limits of 
the individual flowers. It is roasted before being eaten, 
Branch of the Breadfruit-tree (Artocarptts incisa), with staminate 
and pistillate inflorescence. 
and though insipid it forms the principal article of food 
in the South Sea islands. Another species of Artoenrimx 
(A. integri/olia) yields a coarser sort of breadfruit, called 
jack-fruit. See Artocarjnui. Also called bread-tree. (6) A 
rubiaceous shrub of northern Australia, Gardenia eduli*. 
bearing a small edible fruit. Hottentot breadfruit, "f 
South Africa, the stem of Emwhalarto* Ca/cr, which is 
stripped of its leaves, buried in the ground for some months, 
and then pounded, when it furnishes a quantity of farina- 
ceous matter resembling sago. Also called Kajir-bread. 
breadingt, . [< breads + -ing 1 .] A windrow 
or swath. [Prov. Eng.] See extract. 
Breadi-ntjs of corn or grass, the swathes or lows wherein 
the mower leaves them. Kennett (Halliwell). 
bread-knife (bred'ulf), . A knife for cutting 
bread, 
breadless (bred'les), a. [ME. bredlees ; < bread 1 
+ -less.] Without bread ; destitute of food. 
Plump peers and breadlenn bards alike are dull. 
. P. Whitrhead, State Dunces, 
breadmeal (bred'mel), n. The mountain-meal 
orbergmehl of Sweden and Finland. See hinj- 
mehl. 
bread-nut (bred'nut), n. The fruit of the tree 
Brosimnm Alicastrum, natural order Urticacecc. 
break 
See Brosimwm. The bastard bread-nut of Jamaica is the 
fruit of a similar species, I'tieitdolmedia apuria. 
bread-room (bred'rom), n. An apartment 
where bread is kept, especially such an apart- 
ment in a ship, made water-tight, and some- 
times lined with tin to keep out rats. 
bread-root (bred'rot), . A plant of the genus 
Psoralea, the P. esculenta. See Psoralea. 
bread-sauce (bred'sas), . A sauce usually 
made of grated bread, milk, onions, pepper, etc. 
breadstuff (bred'stuf), n. [< bread 1 + *tnff, .] 
Any kind of grain from which bread is made ; 
meal ; flour : generally used in the plural as a 
commercial term to signify all the different 
varieties of grain and flour collectively from 
which bread is made. 
breadth (bredth), . [< late ME. bredtJie. 
bredethe (with suffix -th as in Irui/tli, width. 
strength, etc.), older form brede, < AS. briedii, 
breadth: see bread 1 *, .] 1. The measure of 
the second principal diameter of a surface or 
solid, the first being length, and the third (in 
the case of a solid) mMbMM. Thus, if a rectangular 
parallelopiped measures 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot, its 
breadth is 2 feet. The breadth of a surface is, in the com- 
mon use of the word, the distance between the margins, 
which are regarded as the fides, as distinguished from 
length, or the distance from end to end. 
Hence 2. Figuratively, largeness ; freedom 
from naiTowness or restraint; liberality: as, 
breadth of culture, breadth of view, etc. 3. 
That quality in a work of art, whether pictorial 
or plastic, which is obtained by the simple, 
clear rendering of essential forms, and the 
strict subordination of details to general effect. 
Breadth of design, of color, of light and shade, or of sur- 
face treatment, gives an impression of mastery, ease, and 
freedom in the use of material on the part of the artist, 
which conveys a sense of repose and dignity to the mind. 
4. In logiCj extension; the aggregate of sub- 
jects of which a logical term can be predicated. 
5. Something that has breadth ; specifically, 
apiece of a fabric of the regular width ; a width. 
Essential breadth, the aggregate of real things of 
which, according to its very meaning, a term is predicable. 
The term being, for example, is from its meaning predicable 
of everything. Informed breadth, the aggregate of real 
things of which a term is predicable with logical truth, 
on the whole, in a supposed state of information. 
breadthen (bred then), v. t. [< breadth + -en 1 . 
Cf. lengthen.] To "make broader; extend or 
stretch transversely. [Rare.] 
To extend the pieces to their utmost width a machine 
called a brfadtheninr/ machine is employed. 
Ure, Diet, I. 867. 
breadthless (bredth'les), a. [< breadth + -less.] 
Without breadth. Dr. H. More. 
breadthwise, breadthways (bredth' wiz,-waz), 
adv. [< breadth + -wise, -ways.] In the direc- 
tion of the breadth. 
bread-tray (bred'tra), . A tray for holding 
bread. 
bread-tree (bred'tre), . Same as breadjruit- 
trec, (a) (which see, under breadfruit). 
bread-weight, . Same as troy iceif/lit. 
breadwinner (bred'win"er), n. 1. One who 
earns a livelihood for himself and those depen- 
dent upon him : usually restricted to one who 
is directly dependent upon his earnings from 
day to day or from week to week. 
The breadwinner being gone, his goods were seized for 
an old debt, and his wife was driven into the streets tn 
beg. Lecky, Eng. in 18th Cent., xiii. 
2. That by means of which one earns one's 
bread. [Rare.] 
The book-making specialist of our generation probably 
yields to none of his predecessors in the literary roll in 
respect of industry, skill, and accuracy ; but his subject, 
as a rule, is his business, his bread inn nn-. 
Quarterly Jtrr., (JLXII. 51S. 
breadyt (bred'i), a. [< bread 1 + -//!.] Resem- 
bling bread. 
break (brak), v. ; pret. broke (brake is obsolete 
or archaic), pp. broken or broke (obsolescent or 
poetical), ppr. breaking. [Early mod. E. and 
dial, also breck; < ME. breken (pret. brak, brek, 
6rafce.pl. brazen, Imkcn, pp. broken, broke), < 
AS. brecan (pret. brae, pi. brwcon, pp. brown) 
= OS. brekan = OFries. breka = D. breken = 
MLG. breken, LG. breken, brcekcn = OHG. brt-h- 
li/ni. MHG. breehen, G. brechen = Goth, brikaii. 
break (cf. Icel. braka, bruise, braka, creak, Sw. 
braka, crack, = Dan. bra-kke, break weak 
verbs), = L./rwf/f re (perf./rer/i); perhaps = Gr. 
Inryvi'vai, break; cf. Skt. \fbhan4 (for "bhraiij'), 
break. Hence (from AS. etc.) breach, break, 
n., breck, brrck-, brick 1 , brake 1 , brake?, brtil:i' A , 
brock 1 *, perhaps brook 1 , etc.; (through Rom.) 
bray 1 , breccia, brictile, etc.; and (from L.)/mr- 
iion, fracture, fragile, frail 1 , fraijiiii'iit, etc.] I. 
trout, 1. To divide into parts or fragments vio- 
