See Also: Breast(health)
bed of breast(medicine)
breast(1)(dictionary)
breast(2)(dictionary)
Breast(medicine)
Breast abscess(health)
Breast absence(health)
Breast aplasia(health)
Breast augmentation(health)
Breast biopsy(health)

breast(1) (iou)



breast noun.
[Old English breost = Old Frisian briast, Old Saxon briost, Old Norse brjost, from Germanic.]
Either of two soft protuberant organs situated on the front of a woman's thorax, secreting milk for a period after parturition; the analogous rudimentary organ in men; the organs as a source of milk; fig. a source of nourishment. OE.
Shakespeare Macbeth Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers. Steele One Country Milch-Wench, to whom I was..put to the Breast.
The front of the human thorax, the chest. OE.
beat one's breast: see BEAT verb1 1.
F. Norris A gray flannel shirt, open at the throat, showed his breast.
b. Part of a garment, piece of armour, etc., covering this. LME.
The seat of the affections, emotions, etc.; the heart; one's private thoughts or feelings. OE.
make a clean breast of confess fully.
C. Causley She destroys hope In the breasts of the sick.
The thorax of an animal. ME.
O. Wilde The Nightingale flew to the Rose-tree, and set her breast against the thorn.
b. A joint of meat or portion of poultry cut from the breast. LME.
The whole of the upper torso. LME-M18.
Breath, voice in singing. LME-E18.
J. Fletcher Let's hear him sing, he has a fine breast.
A broad even front of a moving company. Cf. ABREAST. LME-E19.
Any surface, part of a thing, etc., analogous in shape or position to the human breast; a broad or bulging forward part. M16.
chimney-breast the projecting wall enclosing the flues of a chimney within a room.
G. E. Evans The kids had been up on the breast of Gilfach-y-Rhyd, playing Indians among the rocks.
Comb.: breast-board the mould-board of a plough; breastbone = STERNUM; breast collar a part of harness across a draught animal's breast through which the power of drawing is directly exerted; breast-drill a drill on which pressure is brought to bear by the operator's breast; breast-fed adjective, breast-feed verb trans. & intrans., breast-feeding: with milk from a woman's breasts rather than from a feeding-bottle; breast-high adjective & adverb high as the breast; (submerged) to the breast; breast-pin a jewelled or other ornamental pin worn in the tie; breastplate a vestment or piece of armour worn over the chest; the lower shell of a tortoise, turtle, etc.; an inscription plate on a coffin; breast-plough a type of plough pushed by the breast; breast-pocket a pocket over the breast of a garment; breast-pump an instrument for drawing milk from the breasts by suction; breast shell a shallow receptacle that fits over the nipple of a lactating woman to catch any milk that flows; breast-stroke a stroke made while swimming on the breast by extending the arms in front and sweeping them back; BREASTSUMMER; breast-wall a retaining wall, esp. one supporting a bank of earth; breast-wheel a water-wheel in which the water is admitted near the axle; breastwork a breast-high fieldwork thrown up for defence; a parapet.
breasted adjective having a breast (of specified form) ME.
breastwise adverb side by side, abreast E17.
breasty adjective (colloq.) (of a woman) with prominent breasts M20.