BREAST • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Breast

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/brɛst/ Listen

noun

Breast n.

1.

The fore part of the body, between the neck and the belly; the chest; as, the breast of a man or of a horse.

2.

Either one of the protuberant glands, situated on the front of the chest or thorax in the female of man and of some other mammalia, in which milk is secreted for the nourishment of the young; a mamma; a teat. "My brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother."

3.

Anything resembling the human breast, or bosom; the front or forward part of anything; as, a chimney breast; a plow breast; the breast of a hill. "Mountains on whose barren breast The laboring clouds do often rest."

4.

(Mining)

(a)

The face of a coal working.

(b)

The front of a furnace.

5.

The seat of consciousness; the repository of thought and self-consciousness, or of secrets; the seat of the affections and passions; the heart. "He has a loyal breast."

6.

The power of singing; a musical voice; so called, probably, from the connection of the voice with the lungs, which lie within the breast. (Obs.) "By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast."

Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work.

Breast pang. See Angina pectoris, under Angina.

To make a clean breast, to disclose the secrets which weigh upon one; to make full confession.

Breast, Brest n. (Arch.) A torus. (Obs.)

verb

Breast v. t. (past & past part. breasted; pres. part. breasting) To meet, with the breast; to struggle with or oppose manfully; as, to breast the storm or waves. "The court breasted the popular current by sustaining the demurrer."

To breast up a hedge, to cut the face of it on one side so as to lay bare the principal upright stems of the plants.

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Etymology of 'Breast'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Breast" Quotes from Famous Books

... produced at such times, and less easily concealed in the mouth. The judge, however, discovered, by cross-examining a candid witness, that in counterfeiting her fits of convulsion the woman sunk her head on her breast, so as to take up with her lips the pins which she had placed ready in her stomacher. The man was acquitted, of course. A frightful old hag, who was present, distinguished herself so much by her benedictions on the judge, that he asked the cause of the peculiar interest which she took in the ...

— Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft • Sir Walter Scott

... a cry, not of horror but of acceptance. For one short moment he understood. "Stephen—" he began, and then he heard his own name called: "Rickie! Rickie!" Agnes hurried from her post on the margin, and, as if understanding also, caught him to her breast. ...

— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster

... without being told, that there were peculiar difficulties and dangers in it, a long way over and above those which attend all voyages. It must not be supposed that I was afraid to face them; but, in my opinion a man has no manly motive or sustainment in his own breast for facing dangers, unless he has well considered what they are, and is able quietly to say to himself, "None of these perils can now take me by surprise; I shall know what to do for the best in any of them; all the rest lies in the higher and greater hands to which I humbly ...

— The Wreck of the Golden Mary • Charles Dickens

... glasses and carefully examined the plan. He took a long time to do this, and when he had finished his hand instinctively went towards a breast pocket where he kept a note-book with little squared pages. Then he stopped and sighed. After all, why argue with the law? The law was like that—an excellent thing, not infallible, of course (even the plan of the Lord Chief justice ...

— The Best British Short Stories of 1922 • Edward J. O'Brien and John Cournos, editors

... have passed a meeting-house where I observed the undergrowth had been cut for a camp-meeting, and from fifty to a hundred saplings were left breast-high on purpose for persons who were 'jerked' to hold on to. I observed where they had held on they had kicked up the earth as a horse stamping flies.... I believe it does not affect those naturalists who wish to get it to philosophize about it; and rarely those who ...

— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

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