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Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary - Contents
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    BRASSY — BREST

    BRASSY, a. Pertaining to brass; partaking of brass; hard as brass; having the color of brass.

    1. Impudent; impudently bold.NWAD BRASSY.2

    BRAST, a. Burst. [Not in use.]

    BRAT, n. A child, so called in contempt.

    1. Offspring; progeny.NWAD BRAT.2

    BRAUL, n. Indian cloth with blue and white striped, called turbants.

    BRAVADO, n. A boast or brag; an arrogant menace, intended to intimidate.

    BRAVE, a.

    1. Courageous; bold; daring; intrepid; fearless of danger; as a brave warrior. It usually unites the sense of courage with generosity and dignity of mind; qualities often united.NWAD BRAVE.2

    The brave man will not deliberately do an injury to his fellow man.NWAD BRAVE.3

    2. Gallant; lofty; graceful; having a noble mien.NWAD BRAVE.4

    3. Magnificent; grand; as a brave place.NWAD BRAVE.5

    4. Excellent; noble; dignified. But in modern usage, it has nearly lost its application to things.NWAD BRAVE.6

    5. Gaudy; showy in dress.NWAD BRAVE.7

    BRAVE, n. A hector; a man daring beyond discretion or decency.

    Hot braves like these may fight.NWAD BRAVE.9

    1. A boast; a challenge; a defiance.NWAD BRAVE.10

    BRAVE, v.t. To defy; to challenge; to encounter with courage and fortitude, or without being moved; to set at defiance.

    The ills of love I can brave.NWAD BRAVE.12

    The rock that braves the tempest.NWAD BRAVE.13

    1. To carry a boasting appearance of; as, to brave that which they believe not.NWAD BRAVE.14

    BRAVED, pp. Defied; set at defiance; met without dismay, or being moved.

    BRAVELY, adv. Courageously; gallantly; splendidly; in a brave manner; heroically. In Spenser, finely; gaudily.

    BRAVERY, n. Courage; heroism; undaunted spirit; intrepidity; gallantry; fearlessness of danger; often united with generosity or dignity of mind which despises meanness and cruelty, and disdains to take advantage of a vanquished enemy.

    The duelist, in proving his bravery, shows that he thinks it suspected.NWAD BRAVERY.2

    1. Splendor; magnificence; showy appearance.NWAD BRAVERY.3

    The bravery of their tinkling ornaments. Isaiah 3:18.NWAD BRAVERY.4

    2. Show; ostentation; fine dress.NWAD BRAVERY.5

    3. Bravado; boast.NWAD BRAVERY.6

    4. A showy person.NWAD BRAVERY.7

    [In the last four senses, this word is nearly antiquated.]NWAD BRAVERY.8

    BRAVING, ppr. Setting at defiance; challenging.

    BRAVO, n. A daring villain; a bandit; one who sets law at defiance; an assassin or murderer.

    BRAWL, v.i. [L. proelior.]

    1. To quarrel noisily and indecently.NWAD BRAWL.2

    2. To speak loud and indecently.NWAD BRAWL.3

    3. To roar as water; to make a noise.NWAD BRAWL.4

    BRAWL, v.t. To drive or beat away.

    BRAWL, n. Noise; quarrel; scurrility; uproar.

    1. Formerly, a kind of dance.NWAD BRAWL.7

    BRAWLER, n. A noisy fellow; a wrangler.

    BRAWLING, n. The act of quarreling.

    BRAWLINGLY, adv. In a quarrelsome manner.

    BRAWN, n. [L. aprugnus, caro aprugna.]

    1. The flesh of a boar, or the animal.NWAD BRAWN.2

    2. The fleshy, protuberant, muscular part of the body.NWAD BRAWN.3

    3. Bulk; muscular strength.NWAD BRAWN.4

    4. The arm, from its muscles or strength.NWAD BRAWN.5

    BRAWNED, a. Brawny; strong.

    BRAWNER, n. A boar killed for the table.

    BRAWNINESS, n. The quality of being brawny; strength; hardiness.

    BRAWNY, a. Musculous; fleshy; bulky; having large, strong muscles; strong.

    BRAY, v.t.

    1. To pound, beat or grind small; as, to bray a fool in a mortar. Proverbs 27:22.NWAD BRAY.2

    2. To make a harsh sound, as of an ass.NWAD BRAY.3

    3. To make a harsh, disagreeable grating sound.NWAD BRAY.4

    BRAY, n. The harsh sound or roar of an ass; a harsh grating sound.

    1. Shelving ground.NWAD BRAY.6

    BRAY, n. A bank or mound of earth.

    BRAYER, n. One that brays like an ass.

    1. A instrument to temper ink in printing offices.NWAD BRAYER.2

    BRAYING, ppr. Pounding or grinding small; roaring.

    BRAYING, n. Roar; noise; clamor.

    BRAZE, v.t. To soder with brass.

    1. To harden to impudence; to harden as with brass.NWAD BRAZE.2

    BRAZEN, a. brazn. Made of brass; as a brazen helmet.

    1. Pertaining to brass; proceeding from brass; as a brazen din.NWAD BRAZEN.2

    2. Impudent; having a front like brass.NWAD BRAZEN.3

    Brazen age, or age of brass, in mythology, the age which succeeded the silver age, when men had degenerated from primitive purity.NWAD BRAZEN.4

    Brazen dish, among miners, is the standard by which other dishes are gauged, and is kept in the king’s hall.NWAD BRAZEN.5

    Brazen sea, in Jewish antiquity, a huge vessel of brass, cast on the plain of Jordan, and placed in Solomon’s temple. It was ten cubits from brim to brim, five in height, thirty in circumference, and contained 3000 baths. It was designed for the priests to wash themselves in, before they performed the service of the temple.NWAD BRAZEN.6

    BRAZEN, v.i. brazn. To be impudent; to bully.

    BRAZEN-FACE, n. [brazen and face.] An impudent person; one remarkable for effrontery.

    BRAZEN-FACED, a. Impudent; bold to excess; shameless.

    BRAZENLY, adv. In a bold impudent manner.

    BRAZENNESS, n. Appearance like brass. In this sense, brassiness is the more correct word.

    1. Impudence; excess of assurance.NWAD BRAZENNESS.2

    BRAZIER. [See Brasier.]

    BRAZIL, BRAZIL-WOOD, n. Brazil, or brazil-wood, or braziletto, is a very heavy wood of a red color, growing in Brazil, and other tropical countries. It is used in manufactures for dyeing red. It is a species of Caesalpina.

    BRAZILETTO, n. The same as Brazil-wood.

    BRAZILIAN, a. Pertaining to Brazil; as, Brazilian strand.

    BREACH, n.

    1. The act of breaking; or state of being broken; a rupture; a break; a gap; the space between the severed parts of a solid body parted by violence; as a breach in a garment, or in a wall.NWAD BREACH.2

    2. The violation of a law; the violation or non-fulfillment of a contract; the non-performance of a moral duty; non-performance of duty being a breach of obligation, as well as a positive transgression or violation.NWAD BREACH.3

    Every breach of the public engagements is hurtful to public credit.NWAD BREACH.4

    3. An opening in a coast. [Not usual.]NWAD BREACH.5

    4. Separation between friends by means of enmity; difference; quarrel.NWAD BREACH.6

    5. Infraction; injury; invasion; as a breach upon kingly power.NWAD BREACH.7

    6. Bereavement; loss of a friend and its consequent affliction.NWAD BREACH.8

    7. A violation of the public peace, as by a riot, affray, or any tumult which is contrary to law, and destructive to the public tranquillity, is called a breach of the peace.NWAD BREACH.9

    BREACH, v.t. To make a breach, or opening.

    BREAD, n. bred. [Gr. anything esculent. If the word signifies food in general, or that which is eaten, probably it is the Heb. and Ch., from barah, to eat or feed.]

    1. A mass of dough, made by moistening and kneading the flour or meal of some species of grain, and baked in an oven, or pan.NWAD BREAD.2

    2. Food in general.NWAD BREAD.3

    In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Genesis 3:19.NWAD BREAD.4

    Give us this day our daily bread. Lord’s Prayer.NWAD BREAD.5

    3. Support of like in general; maintenance.NWAD BREAD.6

    Is the reward of virtue, bread?NWAD BREAD.7

    Bee-bread. [See Bee.]NWAD BREAD.8

    Ship-bread, bread for ships; hard biscuits.NWAD BREAD.9

    Cassada-bread. [See Cassada.]NWAD BREAD.10

    BREAD, v.t. To spread. [Not used.]

    BREAD-CHIPPER, n. [bread and chip.] One who chips bread; a baker’s servant; an under butler.

    BREAD-CORN, n. [bread and corn.] Corn of which bread is made. This in most countries is wheat and rye; but in some countries bread is made of other grain, as of maize in some parts of America.

    BREADEN, a. Made of bread. [Little used.]

    BREADLESS, a. Without bread; destitute of food.

    BREAD-ROOM, n. An apartment in a ship’s hold, where the bread is kept.

    BREAD-TREE, n. [bread and tree.] The bread-fruit tree, or Artocarpus, a tree which grows in the isles of the Pacific ocean, of the size of an apple-tree, producing a fruit shaped like a heart, and as large as a small loaf of bread, which is eaten as food.

    BREADTH, n. bredth. The measure or extent of any plain surface from side to side; a geometrical dimension, which, multiplied into the length, constitutes a surface; as, the length of a table is five feet, and the breadth, three; 5x3=15 feet, the whole surface.

    BREADTHLESS, a. Having no breadth.

    BREAK, v.t. pret. broke, [brake. Obs.] pp. broke or broken.

    [L. frango, fregi, n casual; Heb. to break, to free or deliver, to separate.]NWAD BREAK.2

    1. To part or divide by force and violence, as a solid substance; to rend apart; as, to break a band; to break a thread or a cable.NWAD BREAK.3

    2. To burst or open by force.NWAD BREAK.4

    The fountains of the earth were broke open.NWAD BREAK.5

    3. To divide by piercing or penetrating; to burst forth; as, the light breaks through the clouds.NWAD BREAK.6

    4. To make breaches or gaps by battering, as in a wall.NWAD BREAK.7

    5. To destroy, crush, weaken, or impair, as the human body or constitution.NWAD BREAK.8

    6. To sink; to appall or subdue; as, to break the spirits, or the passions.NWAD BREAK.9

    7. To crush; to shatter; to dissipate the strength of, as of an army.NWAD BREAK.10

    8. To weaken, or impair, as the faculties.NWAD BREAK.11

    9. To tame; to train to obedience; to make tractable; as, to break a horse.NWAD BREAK.12

    10. To make bankrupt.NWAD BREAK.13

    11. To discard, dismiss or cashier; as, to break an officer.NWAD BREAK.14

    12. To crack, to part or divide, as the skin; to open, as an aposteme.NWAD BREAK.15

    13. To violate, as a contract or promise, either by a positive act contrary to the promise, or by neglect or non-fulfillment.NWAD BREAK.16

    14. To infringe or violate, as a law, or any moral obligation, either by a positive act or by an omission of what is required.NWAD BREAK.17

    15. To stop; to interrupt; to cause to cease; as, to break conversation; to break sleep.NWAD BREAK.18

    16. To intercept; to check; to lessen the force of; as, to break a fall, or a blow.NWAD BREAK.19

    17. To separate; to part; as, to break company of friendship.NWAD BREAK.20

    18. To dissolve any union; sometimes with off; as, to break off a connection.NWAD BREAK.21

    19. To cause to abandon; to reform or cause to reform; as, to break one of ill habits or practices.NWAD BREAK.22

    20. To open as a purpose; to propound something new; to make a first disclosure of opinions; as, to break one’s mind.NWAD BREAK.23

    21. To frustrate; to prevent.NWAD BREAK.24

    If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven’s design.NWAD BREAK.25

    22. To take away; as, to break the whole staff of bread. Psalm 105:16.NWAD BREAK.26

    23. To stretch; to strain; to rack; as, to break one on the wheel.NWAD BREAK.27

    24. To break the back, to strain or dislocate the vertebers with too heavy a burden; also, to disable one’s fortune.NWAD BREAK.28

    25. To break bulk, to begin to unload.NWAD BREAK.29

    26. To break a deer, to cut it up at table.NWAD BREAK.30

    27. To breakfast, to eat the first meal in the day, but used as a compound word.NWAD BREAK.31

    28. To break ground, to plow.NWAD BREAK.32

    29. To break ground, to dig; to open trenches.NWAD BREAK.33

    30. To break the heart, to afflict grievously; to cause great sorrow or grief; to depress with sorrow or despair.NWAD BREAK.34

    31. To break a jest, to utter a jest unexpected.NWAD BREAK.35

    32. To break the neck, to dislocate the joints of the neck.NWAD BREAK.36

    33. To break off, to put a sudden stop to; to interrupt; to discontinue.NWAD BREAK.37

    Break off thy sins by righteousness. Daniel 4:27.NWAD BREAK.38

    34. To sever; to divide; as, to break off a twig.NWAD BREAK.39

    35. To break sheer, in marine language. When a ship at anchor is in a position to keep clear of the anchor, but is forced by wind or current out of that position, she breaks her sheer.NWAD BREAK.40

    36. To break up, to dissolve or put an end to; as, to break up house-keeping.NWAD BREAK.41

    37. To open or lay open; as, to break up a bed of earth.NWAD BREAK.42

    38. To plow ground the first time, or after lying long unplowed; a common use in the U. States.NWAD BREAK.43

    39. To separate; as, to break up a company.NWAD BREAK.44

    40. To disband; as, to break up an army.NWAD BREAK.45

    41. To break upon the wheel, to stretch and break the bones by torture upon the wheel.NWAD BREAK.46

    42. To break wind, to give vent to wind from the body backward.NWAD BREAK.47

    BREAK, v.i. To part; to separate; to divide in two; as, the ice breaks; a band breaks.

    1. To burst; as, a storm or deluge breaks.NWAD BREAK.49

    2. To burst, by dashing against something; as, a wave breaks upon a rock.NWAD BREAK.50

    3. To open, as a tumor or aposteme.NWAD BREAK.51

    4. To open, as the morning; to show the first light; to dawn.NWAD BREAK.52

    5. To burst forth; to utter or exclaim.NWAD BREAK.53

    6. To fail in trade or other occupation; to become bankrupt.NWAD BREAK.54

    7. To decline in health and strength; to begin to lose the natural vigor.NWAD BREAK.55

    8. To issue out with vehemence.NWAD BREAK.56

    9. To make way with violence or suddenness; to rush; often with a particle; as, to break in; to break in upon, as calamities; to break over, as a flood; to break out, as a fire; to break forth, as light or a sound.NWAD BREAK.57

    10. To come to an explanation.NWAD BREAK.58

    I am to break with thee upon some affairs. [I believe, antiquated.]NWAD BREAK.59

    11. To suffer an interruption of friendship; to fall out.NWAD BREAK.60

    Be not afraid to break with traitors.NWAD BREAK.61

    12. To faint, flag or pant.NWAD BREAK.62

    My soul breaketh for longing to thy judgments. Psalm 119:20.NWAD BREAK.63

    13. To break away, to disengage itself from; to rush from; also, to dissolve itself or dissipate, as fog or clouds.NWAD BREAK.64

    14. To break forth, to issue out.NWAD BREAK.65

    15. To break from, to disengage from; to depart abruptly, or with vehemence.NWAD BREAK.66

    16. To break in, to enter by force; to enter unexpectedly; to intrude.NWAD BREAK.67

    17. To break loose, to get free by force; to escape from confinement by violence; to shake off restraint.NWAD BREAK.68

    18. To break off, to part; to divide; also, to desist suddenly.NWAD BREAK.69

    19. To break off from, to part from with violence.NWAD BREAK.70

    20. To break out, to issue forth; to discover itself by its effects, to arise or spring up; as, a fire breaks out; a sedition breaks out; a fever breaks out.NWAD BREAK.71

    To appear in eruptions, as pustules; to have pustules, or an efflorescence on the skin, as a child breaks out. Hence we have freckle from the root of break.NWAD BREAK.72

    To throw off restraint, and become dissolute.NWAD BREAK.73

    21. To break up, to dissolve itself and separate; as a company breaks up; a meeting breaks up; a fog breaks up; but more generally we say, fog, mist or clouds break away.NWAD BREAK.74

    22. To break with, to part in enmity; to cease to be friends; as, to break with a friend or companion.NWAD BREAK.75

    This verb carries with it its primitive sense of straining, parting, severing, bursting, often with violence, with the consequential senses of injury, defect and infirmity.NWAD BREAK.76

    BREAK, n. A state of being open, or the act of separating; an opening made by force; an open place. It is the same word as brack, differently written and pronounced.

    1. A pause; an interruption.NWAD BREAK.78

    2. A line in writing or printing, noting a suspension of the sense, or a stop in the sentence.NWAD BREAK.79

    3. In a ship, the break of the deck is the part where it terminates, and the descent on to the next deck below commences.NWAD BREAK.80

    4. The first appearance of light in the morning; the dawn; as the break of day.NWAD BREAK.81

    BREAKAGE, n. A breaking; also, an allowance for things broken, in transportation.

    BREAKER, n. The person who breaks any thing; a violator or transgressor; as a breaker of the law.

    1. A rock which breaks the waves; or the wave itself which breaks the waves; or the wave itself which breaks against a rock, a sand bank, or the shore, exhibiting a white foam.NWAD BREAKER.2

    2. A pier, mound or other solid matter, placed in a river, to break the floating ice, and prevent it from injuring a bridge below; called also ice-breaker.NWAD BREAKER.3

    3. One that breaks up ground.NWAD BREAKER.4

    4. A destroyer. Micah 2:13.NWAD BREAKER.5

    BREAKFAST, n. brek’fast. [break and fast.]

    1. The first meal in the day; or the thing eaten at the first meal.NWAD BREAKFAST.2

    2. A meal, or food in general.NWAD BREAKFAST.3

    BREAKFAST, v.i. brek’fast. To eat the first meal in the day.

    BREAKFAST, v.t. brekfast. To furnish with the first meal in the morning.

    BREAKFASTING, ppr. Eating or taking the first meal in the day.

    BREAKFASTING, n. A party at breakfast.

    BREAKING, ppr. Parting by violence; rending asunder; becoming bankrupt.

    BREAKNECK, n. [break and neck.] A fall that breaks the neck; a steep place endangering the neck.

    BREAKPROMISE, n. [break and promise.] One who makes a practice of breaking his promise. [Not used.]

    BREAKVOW, n. [break and vow.] One who habitually breaks his vows. [Not used.]

    BREAKWATER, n. [break and water.] The hull of an old vessel sunk at the entrance of a harbor, to break or diminish the force of the waves, to secure the vessels in harbor.

    1. A small buoy fastened to a large one, when the rope of the latter is not long enough to reach the surface of the water.NWAD BREAKWATER.2

    2. A mole, at the mouth of a harbor, intended to break the force of the waves.NWAD BREAKWATER.3

    BREAM, n. A fish, the Cyprinus brama, an inhabitant of lakes and deep water, extremely insipid and little valued.

    BREAM, v.t. In sea language, to burn off the filth, such as grass, sea week, ooze, etc., from a ship’s bottom.

    BREAST, n. brest.

    1. The soft, protuberant body, adhering to the thorax, which, in females, furnishes milk for infants.NWAD BREAST.2

    His breasts are full of milk. Job 21:24.NWAD BREAST.3

    2. The fore part of the thorax, or the fore part of the human body between the neck and the belly.NWAD BREAST.4

    3. The part of a breast which answers to the breast in man. This, in quadrupeds, is between the fore legs, below the neck.NWAD BREAST.5

    4. Figuratively, the heart; the conscience; the disposition of the mind; the affections; the seat of the affections and passions.NWAD BREAST.6

    5. Formerly, the power of singing.NWAD BREAST.7

    BREAST, v.t. brest. To meet in front; to oppose breast to breast.

    BREASTBONE, n. [breast and bone.] The bone of the breast; the sternum.

    BREAST-CASKET, n. [breast and casket.]

    One of the largest and longest of the caskets or strings on the middle of the yard of a ship.NWAD BREAST-CASKET.2

    BREASTDEEP, a. Breast high; as high as the breast.

    BREASTED, a. Having a broad breast; having a fine voice.

    BREASTFAST, n. [breast and fast.] A large rope to confine a ship sidewise to a wharf or key.

    BREASTHIGH, a. [breast and high.] High as the breast.

    BREASTHOOK, n. [breast and high.] A thick piece of timber placed directly across the stem of a ship to strengthen the fore part and unite the bows on each side.

    BREASTING, ppr. Meeting with the breast; opposing in front.

    BREASTKNOT, n. [breast and knot.] A knot of ribins worn on the breast.

    BREASTPLATE, n. [breast and plate.]

    1. Armor for the breast.NWAD BREASTPLATE.2

    2. A strap that runs across a horse’s breast.NWAD BREASTPLATE.3

    3. In Jewish antiquity, a part of the vestment of the high priest, consisting of a folded piece of the rich embroidered stuff of which the ephod was made. It was set with twelve precious stones, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes.NWAD BREASTPLATE.4

    BREASTPLOW, n. [breast and plow.] A plow, driven by the breast, used to cut or pare turf.

    BREASTROPE, n. [breast and rope.] In a ship, breast ropes are used to fasten the yards to the parrels, and with the parrels, to hold the yards fast to the mast; now called parrel ropes.

    BREAST-WORK, n. [breast and work.] In fortification, a work thrown up for defense; a parapet, which see.

    BREATH, n. breth.

    1. The air inhaled and expelled in the respiration of animals.NWAD BREATH.2

    2. Life.NWAD BREATH.3

    No man has more contempt than I of breath.NWAD BREATH.4

    3. The state or power of breathing freely; opposed to a state of exhaustion from violent action; as, I am out of breath; I am scarce in breath.NWAD BREATH.5

    4. Respite; pause; time to breathe; as, let me take breath; give me some breath.NWAD BREATH.6

    5. Breeze; aid in gentle motion.NWAD BREATH.7

    Calm and unruffled as a summer’s sea,NWAD BREATH.8

    When not a breath of wind flies o’er its surface.NWAD BREATH.9

    6. A single respiration; as, he swears at every breath.NWAD BREATH.10

    7. An instant; the time of a single respiration; a single act.NWAD BREATH.11

    He smiles and he frowns in a breath.NWAD BREATH.12

    8. A word.NWAD BREATH.13

    A breath can make them, as a breath has made.NWAD BREATH.14

    BREATHABLE, a. That may be breathed.

    BREATHE, v.i. To respire; to inspire and expire air. Hence, to live.

    1. To take breath; to rest from action; as, let them have time to breathe.NWAD BREATHE.2

    2. To pass as air.NWAD BREATHE.3

    To whose foul mouth no wholesome air breathes in.NWAD BREATHE.4

    BREATHE, v.t. To inhale as air into the lungs and expel it; as, to breathe vital air.

    1. To inject by breathing; to infuse; followed by into.NWAD BREATHE.6

    And the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Genesis 2:7.NWAD BREATHE.7

    2. To expire; to eject by breathing; followed by out; as, to breathe out threatening and slaughter.NWAD BREATHE.8

    3. To exercise; to keep in breath.NWAD BREATHE.9

    The greyhounds are as swift as brethed stage.NWAD BREATHE.10

    4. To inspire or blow into; to cause to sound by breathing; as, to breathe the flute.NWAD BREATHE.11

    5. To exhale; to emit as breath; as, the flowers breathe odors or perfume.NWAD BREATHE.12

    6. To utter softly or in private; as, to breathe a vow.NWAD BREATHE.13

    7. To give air or vent to; to open; as, to breathe a vein.NWAD BREATHE.14

    8. To express; to manifest.NWAD BREATHE.15

    Other articles breathe the same severe spirit.NWAD BREATHE.16

    BREATHED, pp. Inhaled and exhaled; respired; uttered.

    BREATHER, n. One that breathes or lives; one that utters; an inspirer, one who animates or infuses by inspiration.

    BREATHFUL, a. breth’ful. Full of breath; full of odor.

    BREATHING, ppr. Respiring; living; uttering.

    1. Exhibiting to the life; as breathing paint.NWAD BREATHING.2

    BREATHING, n. Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air.

    1. Aspiration; secret prayer.NWAD BREATHING.4

    2. Breathing-place; vent.NWAD BREATHING.5

    3. Accent; aspiration.NWAD BREATHING.6

    BREATHING-PLACE, n. A pause.

    1. A vent.NWAD BREATHING-PLACE.2

    BREATHING-TIME, n. Pause, relaxation.

    BREATHLESS, a. breth’less. Being out of breath; spent with labor or violent action.

    1. Dead; as a breathless body.NWAD BREATHLESS.2

    BREATHLESSNESS, n. The state of being exhausted of breath.

    BRECCIA, n. In mineralogy, an aggregate composed of angular fragments of the same mineral, or of different minerals, united by a cement, and presenting a variety of colors. Sometimes a few of the fragments are a little rounded. The varieties are the siliceous, calcarious and trap breccias.

    When rounded stones and angular fragments are united by a cement, the aggregate is usually called coarse conglomerate.NWAD BRECCIA.2

    BRECCIATED, a. Consisting of angular fragments, cemented together.

    BRECHITE, n. A fossil allied to the Alcyons. It is cylindrical, striated, and its thick end conical, pierced with holes and crested.

    BRED, pp. of breed. Generated; produced; contrived; educated.

    BREDE, n. A braid. [Not used.]

    BREECH, n. brich. [See Breach and Break.] The lower part of the body behind.

    1. Breeches; but rarely used in the singular.NWAD BREECH.2

    2. The hinder part of any thing.NWAD BREECH.3

    BREECH, v.t. To put into breeches.

    1. To whip on the breech.NWAD BREECH.5

    2. See Britch.NWAD BREECH.6

    BREECHES, n. plu. brich’es. [Low L. braccoe.]

    A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs. It is now a close garment; but the word formerly was used for a loose garment, now called trowsers, laxoe braccoe.NWAD BREECHES.2

    To wear the breeches is, in the wife, to usurp the authority of the husband.NWAD BREECHES.3

    BREECHING, ppr. brich’ing. Furnishing with breeches, or with a breech. [See Britch.]

    1. Whipping the breech; and as a noun, a whipping.NWAD BREECHING.2

    BREECHING, in gunnery on board of ships. [Bee Britching.]

    BREED, v.t. pret. and pp. bred.

    1. To generate; to engender; to hatch; to produce the young of any species of animals. I think it is never used of plants, and in animals is always applied to the mother or dam.NWAD BREED.2

    2. To produce within or upon the body; as, to breed teeth; to breed worms.NWAD BREED.3

    3. To cause; to occasion; to produce; to originate.NWAD BREED.4

    Intemperance and lust breed infirmities.NWAD BREED.5

    Ambition breeds factions.NWAD BREED.6

    4. To contrive; to hatch; to produce by plotting.NWAD BREED.7

    Had he a heart and a brain to breed it in?NWAD BREED.8

    5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds a race of stout men.NWAD BREED.9

    6. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; often, but unnecessarily, followed by up; as, to breed a son to an occupation; a man bred at a university. To breed up is vulgar.NWAD BREED.10

    7. To bring up; to nurse and foster; to take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to provide for, train and conduct; to instruct the mind and form the manners in youth.NWAD BREED.11

    To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed.NWAD BREED.12

    BREED, v.i. To produce, as a fetus; to bear and nourish, as in pregnancy; as, a female breeds with pain.

    1. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth; as, children or young breed in the matrix.NWAD BREED.14

    2. To have birth; to be produced; as, fish breed in rivers.NWAD BREED.15

    3. To be increased by a new production.NWAD BREED.16

    But could youth last and love still breed.NWAD BREED.17

    4. To raise a breed; as, to choose the best species of swine to breed from.NWAD BREED.18

    BREED, n. A race or progeny from the same parents or stock.

    1. A cast; a kind; a race of men or other animals, which have an alliance by nativity, or some distinctive qualities in common; as a breed of men in a particular country; a breed of horses or sheep. Applied to men, it is not elegant. We use race.NWAD BREED.20

    2. Progeny; offspring; applied to other things than animals.NWAD BREED.21

    3. A number produced at once, a hatch; a brood; but for this, brood is generally used.NWAD BREED.22

    BREED-BATE, n. One that breeds or originates quarrels. [Not in use.]

    BREEDER, n. The female that breeds or produces, whether human or other animal.

    1. The person who educates or brings up; that which brings up.NWAD BREEDER.2

    Italy and Rome have been the best breeders of worthy men.NWAD BREEDER.3

    2. That which produces.NWAD BREEDER.4

    Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.NWAD BREEDER.5

    3. One who raises a breed; one who takes care to raise a particular breed, or breeds, as of horses or cattle.NWAD BREEDER.6

    BREEDING, ppr. Bearing and nourishing, as a fetus; engendering; producing; educating.

    BREEDING, n. The act of generating or of producing.

    1. The raising of a breed or breeds; as, the farmer attends to the breeding of sheep.NWAD BREEDING.3

    2. Nurture; education; instruction; formation of manners.NWAD BREEDING.4

    She had her breeding at my father’s charge.NWAD BREEDING.5

    3. By way of eminence, manners; knowledge of ceremony; deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life. Hence good breeding is politeness, or the qualifications which constitute genteel deportment.NWAD BREEDING.6

    BREEZE, n. A genus of flies or insects, technically called Tabanus. There are many species, but the most noted is the bovinus, great horsefly, whose mouth is armed with two hooks which penetrate the skin of an animal, while with a proboscis, like a sting, it sucks the blood.

    BREEZE, n. [Gr. to boil.]

    1. A light wind; a gentle gale.NWAD BREEZE.3

    From land a gentle breeze arose at night.NWAD BREEZE.4

    2. A shifting wind, that blows from the sea or from the land, for a certain time, by night or by day. Such breezes are common in the tropical regions, and in a good degree regular. The wind from the sea is called a sea breeze, and that from the land, a land breeze. In general, the sea breeze blows in the day time, and the land breeze at night. The like breezes are common, in the summer months, in the temperate latitudes.NWAD BREEZE.5

    BREEZE, v.i. To blow gently; a word common among seamen.

    For now the breathing airs, from ocean born,NWAD BREEZE.7

    Breeze up the bay, and lead the lively morn.NWAD BREEZE.8

    BREEZELESS, a. Motionless; destitute of breezes.

    BREEZY, a. Fanned with gentle winds or breezes; as the breezy shore.

    1. Subject to frequent breezes.NWAD BREEZY.2

    BREHON, n. In Irish, a judge. In ancient times, the general laws of Ireland were called Brehon laws, unwritten like the common law of England. These laws were abolished by statute of Edward III.

    BREISLAKITE, n. A newly discovered Vesuvian mineral, resembling a brownish or reddish brown down, which lines the small bubbles found in the lava of Scalla, and is found in cavities of the lava of Olebano; names from Breislak, a celebrated Italian naturalist.

    BREME, a. [L. fremo.] Cruel; sharp. [Not used.]

    BREN, v.t. To burn.

    BRENNAGE, n. [from bran.] In the middle ages, a tribute or composition which tenants paid to their lord, in lieu of bran which they were obliged to furnish for his hounds.

    BRENT or BRANT, a. Steep; high.

    BRENT, n. A brant, or brand-goose, a fowl with a black neck and a white collar or line round it. [See Brant.]

    1. Brunt. [See Bren.]NWAD BRENT.3

    BREST or BREAST, n. In architecture, the member of a column, more usually called torus or tore. [See Torus.]

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