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Hangs o'er us black and threat'ning, like a storm Dryden. Just breaking on our heads.

3. To spread by dashing, as waves on a rock.

At last a falling billow stops his breath, Breaks o'er his head, and whelms him underneath. Dryden.

He could compare the confusion of a multitude to that tumult in the Icarian sea, dashing and breaking among its crowd of islands. Pope. 4. To break as a swelling; to open, and discharge matter.

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Some hidden abscess in the mesentery, breaking some few days after, was discovered to be Harvey. an aposteme.

Ask one, who had subdued his natural rage, how he likes the change; and undoubtedly he will tell you, that it is no less happy than the ease of a broken imposthume, as the painful gathering and filling of it. Decay of Picty.

Το open as the morning.

The day breaks not, it is my heart,
Because that I and you must part.
Stay, or else my joys will die,
And perish in their infancy.

Donne.

When a man thinks of any thing in the darkness of the night, whatever deep impressions it may make in his mind, they are apt to vanish as the day breaks about him.

6. To burst forth; to exclaim.

Every man,

Addison.

After the hideous storm that follow'd, was A thing inspir'd; and, not consulting, broke Into a general prophecy.

7. To become bankrupt.

Shakspeare.

I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Shakspeare.

He that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty.

Bacon. Cutler saw tenants breuk, and houses fall, For very want; he could not build a wall. Pope. 8. To decline in health and strength. Yet thus, methinks, I hear then speak: See how the dean begins to break; Poor gentleman! he droops apace. 9. To issue out with vehemence. Whose wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he strook,

Savift.

While from his breast the dreadful accents broke.

Pepe. 10. To make way with some kind of suddenness, impetuosity, or violence. Calamities may be nearest at hand, and readiest to break in suddenly upon us, which we, in regard of times or circumstances, may imagine to be farthest off. Hooker.

The three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines. 2 Samuel.

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He resolved that Balfour should use his utmost endeavour to break through with his whole body of horse. Clarendon.

When the channel of a river is overcharged with water, more than it can deliver, it neces sarily breaks over the banks to make itself room. Hale.

Sometimes his anger breaks through all disguises,

And spares not gods nor men.

Denham. Till through those clouds the sun of knowledge brake,

And Europe from her lethargy did wake. Denham. O! couldst thou break through fate's severe

decree,

A new Marcellus should arise in thee. Dryden.
At length I've acted my severest part!

I feel the woman breaking in upon me,
And melt about my heart; my tears will flow.
Addison.

How does the lustre of our father's actions, Through the dark cloud of ills that cover him, Break out, and burn with more triumphant blaze! Addison.

And yet, methinks, a beam of light breaks in On my departing soul.

Addison.

There are some who, struck with the usefulness of these charities, break through all the dif ficulties and obstructions that now lie in the way towards advancing them. Atterbury. Almighty Pow'r, by whose most wise command, Helpless, forlorn, uncertain, here I stand; Take this faint glimmering of thyself away, Or break into my soul with perfect day! Arbuth See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display, And break upon thee in a flood of day! Pope.

I must pay her the last duty of friendship, wherever she is, though I break through the whole plan of life which I have formed in my mind.

II. To come to an explanation.

Swift.

But perceiving this great alteration in his friend, he thought fit to break with him thereof.

Stay with me awhile;

I am to break with thee of some affairs That touch me near.

Sidney.

Shakspears. Break with them, gentle love, About the drawing as many of their husbands Into the plot as can. Ben Jonson. 12. To fall out; to be friends no longer. Be not afraid to break With murderers and traitors, for the saving A life so near and necessary to you As is your country's. Ben Jonson, To break upon the score of danger or expence, is to be moan and narrow-spirited. Sighing, he says, we must certainly break, And my cruel unkindness compels him to speak. Prior.

Collier.

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17. To break off. To desist suddenly.

Do not peremptorily break off, in any business, in a fit of anger; but howsoever you shew bitterness, do not act any thing that is not revocable. Bacon.

Pius Quintus, at the very time when that memorable victory was won by the christians at Lepanto, being then hearing of causes in consistory, broke of suddenly, and said to those about him, It is now more time we should give thanks to God. Bacon.

When you begin to consider whether you may safely take one draught more, let that be accounted a sign late enough to break off. Taylor. 18. To break off from. To part from with violence.

I must from this enchanting queen break off. Shakspeare. 19. To break out. To discover itself in sudden effects.

Let not one spark of filthy lustful fire Break out, that may her sacred peace molest. Spenser. They smother and keep down the flame of the mischief, so as it may not break out in their time of government; what comes afterwards, they care not. Spenser.

Such a deal of wonder has broken out within this hour, that ballad makers cannot be able to express it. Shakspeare. As fire breaks out of flint by percussion, so wisdom and truth issueth out by the agitation of argument.

Horvel.

Fully ripe, his swelling fate breaks out, And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on. Dryd. All turn'd their sides, and to each other spoke; I saw their words break out in fire and smoke.

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A violent fever broke out in the place, which swept away great multitudes. Addison. 20. To break out. To have eruptions from the body, as pustules or sores. 21. To break out. To become dissolute.

He broke not out into his great excesses, while he was restrained by the councils and authority of Seneca. Dryden.

22. To break up. To cease; to intermit. It is credibly affirmed, that, upon that very day when the river first riseth, great plagues in Cairo use suddenly to break up. Bacon.

23. To break up. To dissolve itself.

These, and the like conceits, when men have

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course

East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up,
Each hurries tow'rds his home and sporting place.
Shakspeare.

25. To break with. To part friendship with any.

There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
Reports the Volscians, with two several powers,
Are enter'd in the Roman territories.-
-Go see this rumourer whipt. It cannot be
The Volscians dare break with us. Shakspeare.

Can there be any thing of friendship in shares, hooks, and trapans? Whosoever breaks with his friend upon such terms, has enough to warrant him in so doing, both before God and man. Seath. Invent some apt pretence

To break with Bertram. Dryden. 26. It is to be observed of this extensive and perplexed verb, that in all its significations, whether active or neutral, it has some reference to its primitive mean ing, by implying either detriment, suddenness, violence, or separation. It is used often with additional particles, up, out, in, off, forth, to modify its signification.

BREAK. n. s. [from the verb.]
1. State of being broken; opening.

From the break of day until noon, the roaring
Knolles

of the cannon never ceased.
For now, and since first break of day, the fiend,
Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come.
Milton.

They must be drawn from far, and without breaks, to avoid the multiplicity of lines. Dryd The sight of it would be quite lost, did it not sometimes discover itself though the breaks and openings of the woods that grow about it. Addison.

2. A pause; an interruption. 3. A line drawn, noting that the sense is suspended.

All modern trash is Set forth with num'rous breaks and dashes. Swift. BREAKER. n. s. [from break.] 1. He that breaks any thing.

Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law. Shaks. If the churches were not employed to be places to hear God's law, there would be need of them to be prisons for the breakers of the laws of men. South. 2. A wave broken by rocks or sandbanks: a term of navigation. TO BREAKFAST. v. n. [from break and fast. To eat the first meal in the day As soon as Phoebus' rays inspect us, First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast. Prier.

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Forsake the court; to do 't or no, is certain To me a breakneck. Shakspeare. BREAKPROMISE. n. s. [from break and promise. One that makes a practice of breaking his promise.

I will think you the most atheistical breakpromise, and the most hollow lover. Shakspeare. BREAKVOW.n.s [from break and vow.] He that practises the breach of vows. That daily breakvor, he that wins of all, Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids. Shakspeare. BREAM n s. [brame, Ft. cyprinus latus, Lat. A fish.

The bream, being at full growth, is a large fish; he will breed both in rivers and ponds, but loves best to live in ponds. He is, by Gesner, taken to be more elegant than wholesome. He is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him, and in many ponds so fast as to overstock them, and starve the other fish. He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in excellent order. He hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth, two sets of teeth, and a lozing bone, to help his grinders. The male is observed to have two large melts, and the female two large bags of eggs or spawn. Walton's Angler.

A broad bream, to please some curious taste,
While yet alive in boiling water cast,
Vex'd with unwonted heat, boils, flings about.
Waller.

BREAST. n. s. [breost, Saxon.]
1. The middle part of the human body,
between the neck and the belly.
No, traytress! angry Love replies,
She's hid somewhere about thy breast;
A place, nor God nor man denies,
For Venus' dove the proper nest.
2. The dugs or teats of women which
contain the milk.

Prior.

They pluck the fatherless from the breast. Job. 3. Breast was anciently taken for the power of singing.

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The belly shall be eminent, by shadowing the flank, and under the breastbone. Peacham.

BREʼASTCASKET. n. s. [from breast and casket.] With mariners, the largest and longest caskets, which are a sort of strings placed in the middle of the yard. BREASTFAST. n. s.[from breast and fast.] In a ship, a rope fastened to some part of her forward on, to hold her head to a warp, or the like. Harris. BREASTHIGH. adj.[from breast and high.] Up to the breast.

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The river itself gave way unto her, so that she was straight breasthigh.

Sidney. Lay madam Partlet, basking in the sun, Breasthigh in sand. Dryden's Fables. BREASTHOOKS. n. s. [from breast and book.] With shipwrights, the compassing timbers before, that help to strengthen the stem, and all the forepart of the ship. Harris. BREAST KNOT. n.s.[from breast and knot.] A knot or bunch of ribands worn by women on the breast.

Our ladies have still faces, and our men hearts; why may we not hope for the same achievements from the influence of this breastknot? Addison.

BREASTPLATE. n. s. [from breast and plate.] Armour for the breast.

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?

Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just. Shakspeare.

'Gainst shield, helm, breastplate, and, instead

of those,

Five sharp smooth stones from the next brook he chose. Cowley This venerable champion will come into the field, armed only with a pocket-pistol, before his old rusty breastplate could be scoured, and his cracked headpiece mended. Swift. BREASTPLOUGH. n. s. [from breast and plough.] A plough used for paring turf, driven by the breast.

him.

The breastplough which a man shoves before Mortimer. BRE'ASTROPES. n. s. [from breast and rope.] In a ship, those ropes which fasten the yards to the parrels, and, with the parrels, hold the yards fast to the Harris. BREASTWORK. n. s. [from breast and work. Works thrown up as high as the breast of the defendants; the same with parapet.

mast.

Sir John Astley cast up breastworks, and made a redoubt for the defence of his men. Clarendon. BREATH. n. 5. [brade, Saxon.]

1. The air drawn in and ejected out of the body by living animals.

Whither are they vanish'd? Into the air: and what seem'd corporal Melted, as breath, into the wind.

2. Life.

Shakspeare.

No man has more contempt than I of breath: But whence hast thou the pow'r togive me death? Dryden. 3. The state or power of breathing freely; opposed to the condition in which a man is breathless and spent.

At other times, he casts to sue the chase
Of swift wild beasts, or run on foot a race,
T' enlarge his breath, large breath in arms most
needful,

Or else, by wrestling, to wax strong and heedful.
Spenser.
What is your difference? speak.-
I am scarce in breath, my lord. Shakspeare.
Spaniard, take breath; some respite I'll afford;
My cause is more advantage than your sword.
Dryden.

Our swords so wholly did the fates employ, That they, at length, grew weary to destroy; Refus'd the work we brought, and, out of breath, Made sorrow and despair attend for death. Dryd. Respite; pause; relaxation.

Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord,

Before I positively speak. 5. Breeze; moving air.

Shakspeare.

Vent all thy passion, and I'll stand its shock, Calm and unruffled as a summer's sea When not a breath of wind files o'er its surface. Addison's Cato.

6. A single act; an instant.

You menace me, and court me, in a breath; Your Cupid looks as dreadfully as death. Dryd. BREATHABLE. adj. [from breath.] That may be breathed; as, breathable air. To BREATHE. v. n. [from breath.]

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No particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the breather. Shakspeare.

1. To draw in and throw out the air by 3. Inspirer; one that animates or infuses by

the lungs; to inspire and expire.

He safe return'd, the race of glory past, New to his friends embrace, had breath'd his last.

2. To live.

Pope.

Let him breathe, between the heav'ns and earth,

A private man in Athens.

3. To take breath; to rest.

Shakspeare.

He presently followed the victory so hot upon the Scots, that he suffered them not to breathe, or gather themselves together again. Spenser. Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,

Upon agreement.

Shakspeare's Henry W. Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death,

And too much breathing put him out of breath. Milton.

When France had breath'd after intestine broils, And peace and conquest crown'd her foreign toils.

4. To pass as air.

Roscommon.

Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,

And there be strangled ere my Romeo comes?

Shakspeare.

To BREATHE. V. a. 1. To inspire or inhale into one's own body, and eject or expire out of it.

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The prince, with patience and sufferance sly, So hasty heat soon cooled to subdue; Tho' when he breathless wax, that battle 'gan Fairy Queen. I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless, and faint, leaning upon my sword, Çame there a certain lord. Shakspeare. Many so strained themselves in their race, that they fell down breathless and dead. Hayward. Breathless and tir'd, is all my fury spent? Or does my glutted spleen at length relent? 2. Dead,

Dryden

Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life, And breathing to this breathless excellence The incense of a vow, a holy vow. Shakspeare. Yielding to the sentence, breathless thou And pale shalt lie, as what thou buriest now. Prior.

BRED. The part. pass. of To breed.

Their malice was bred in them, and their cogitation would never be changed. Wisdom. BREDE. n. s. See BRAID.

In a curious brede of needle-work, one colour falls away by such just degrees, and another rises so insensibly, that we see the variety, without being able to distinguish the total vanishing of the one from the first appearance of the other. Addison.

BREECH. n. s. [supposed from bɲæcan, Sax.]

1. The lower part of the body; the back part.

When the king's pardon was offered by a herauld, a lewd boy turned towards him his naked breech, and used words suitable to that gesture. Hayward.

The storks devour snakes and other serpents; which when they begin to creep out at their breeches, they will presently clap them close to a wall to keep them in. Grew's Museum. 2. Breeches.

Ah! that thy father had been so resolved!That thou might still have worn the petticoat, And ne'er had stol'n the breech from Lancaster. Shakspeare.

Anon.

3. The hinder part of a piece of ordnance. So cannons, when they mount vast pitches, Are tumbled back upon their breeches. 4. The hinder part of any thing. To BREECH. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To put into breeches.

2. To fit any thing with a breech; as, to breech a gun.

BREECHES. n. s. [bræc, Saxon, from

bracca, an old Gaulish word; so that Skinner imagines the name of the part covered with breeches, to be derived from that of the garment. In this sense it has no singular.]

1. The garment worn by men over the lower part of the body.

Petruchio is coming, in a new hat and an old jerkin, and a pair of old breeches, thrice turned. Shakspeare. Rough satires, sly remarks,ill-natur'd speeches, Are always aim'd at poets that wear breeches.

Prior.

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4.

Thereat he roared for exceeding pain,

That to have heard, great horrour would have bred. Fairy Queen. Our own hearts we know, but we are not certain what hope the rites and orders of our church have bred in the hearts of others. Hooker. What hurt ill company, and overmuch liberty, breedeth in youth! Ascham's Schoolmaster. Intemperance and lust breed infirmities and diseases, which, being propagated, spoil the strain of a nation. Tillotson

To contrive; to hatch; to plot.

My son Edgar! had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ? Shakspeare. 5. To give birth to; to be the native place: so, there are breeding ponds, and feeding ponds.

6.

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Mr. Harding, and the worthiest divine christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years, were brought up together in the Hooker. same university.

Hail, foreign wonder!

Whom certain these rough shades did never breed. Milton.

To educate; to form by education. Whoe'er thou art, whose forward ears are bent On state affairs, to guide the government; Hear first what Socrates of old has said To the lov'd youth whom he at Athens bred. Dryde

To breed up the son to common sense, Is evermore the parent's least expence. Dryd. And left their pillagers, to rapine bred, Without controul to strip and spoil the dead. Dryden. His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. Locke. 7. To bring up; to take care of from infancy.

Ah wretched me! by fates averse decreed To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed. Dryden. 8. To conduct through the first stages of life.

Bred up in grief, can pleasure be our theme? Our endless anguish does not nature claim? Reason and sorrow are to us the same. Prior. To BREED. v. n.

1. To bring young.

2.

Lucina, it seems, was breeding, as she did nothing but entertain the company with a discourse upon the difficulty of reckoning to a day. Spect To be increased by new production. But could youth last, and love still breed; Had joys no date, and age no need; Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love. Raleigh. 3. To be produced; to have birth. Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, The air is delicate. Shakspeare's Macbeth. There is a worm that breedeth in old snow, and dieth soon after it cometh out of the snow. Bacon. The caterpillar is one of the most general of worms, and breedeth of dew and leaves. Bacon. It hath been the general tradition and belief, that maggots and flies breed in putrified carcases.

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