I. ˈbrēch noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English breche, alteration (influenced by Old French breche breach, opening made by breaking, from Old High German brecha ) of Old English bryce breach, fracture, breaking; akin to Old English brecan to break — more at break
1.
a.
(1) : infraction or violation of a law, obligation, tie, code, or standard
by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands — John Locke
(2) : unfulfillment or nonfeasance constituting infraction
a breach of duty
a breach of church observances
b. archaic : infringement , encroachment
c. : the state of being ignored : nonobservance , desuetude — used only in the phrase honored more in the breach than in the observance
d. : breach of promise
e. : the act of breaking or of aiding another to break into or out of
prison breach
2.
a. : a broken, ruptured, or torn condition : a place showing rupture, split, or fissure
causing a breach of the skin or bloodshed — G.G.Coulton
turning over the picture of the ark with too much haste, I unhappily made a breach in its ingenious fabric — Charles Lamb
b. : an opening or gap (as in a wall, rampart, or other fortification) made by or as if by battering
once more unto the breach , dear friends, … or close the wall up with our English dead — Shakespeare
the fatal breach in the scholastic wholeness — H.O.Taylor
c. : a position entailing heavy fighting or strenuous exertion : a necessitous situation calling for urgent action
although a thousand fall, there are always some to go into the breach — R.L.Stevenson
stepping into the breach when his leader died
d. : a way made through a minefield by removing or exploding mines
3.
a. : an open break in accustomed friendly or amiable relations : a notable division over an issue : an estranging difference : disagreement , quarrel
a trivial misunderstanding causing a breach between friends
a gesture which healed a breach between the two branches of the family — Current Biography
b. : an interruption or suspension of something expected to continue : hiatus
imperil that success by any breach in the continuity of worship — Compton Mackenzie
the breaches of agrarian routine — F.M.Stenton
c. : a marked difference : a difference or lack of accord that prevents unity or integration
the traditional breach between the artist and the Puritan — S.P.Sherman
4.
a. : the action of the breaking of waves or of the sweeping or pounding of breakers
b. obsolete : surf , breakers
c. obsolete : creek
5. : the leap of a whale out of water
Synonyms:
infraction , violation , transgression , trespass , infringement , contravention : breach usually occurs with modifying phrases specifying the thing offended against
a breach of faith
a breach of discipline
a breach of the peace
infraction is more often used than breach for the breaking of a law or for an action contravening an obligation
an infraction of a traffic regulation
an infraction of school rules
an infraction of a citizen's guaranteed rights
violation adds the notion of overt disregard of law or the rights of others and often suggests the exercise of force
a violation of traffic rules
a violation of fundamental principles of good government
renewed hostilities constitute an unequivocal violation of a peace treaty
transgression applies to any act that goes beyond the limits of a law, rule, or order, usually a moral law or commandment
mistakes of this sort are resisted as any aesthetic transgression might be resisted — as being somehow incongruous — Edward Sapir
what my father made clear to us as the very crux of our transgressions was that we had discredited our bringing up — Mary Austin
a penalty pronounced upon Eve for her transgression in the garden of Eden — J.C.Krantz
trespass also implies an overstepping of prescribed ground but suggests encroachment upon another's rights, comfort, or property
visitors had best avoid trespass on the lowlands lying west of the Roosevelt mansion — Morris Kaplan
trespass across tribal frontiers is dangerous unless previous relations are friendly and the arrival is frankly announced — C.D.Forde
the nature and degree of any trespass upon academic integrity — W.A.Dorrance
infringement is sometimes interchangeable with infraction
an infringement of the law
Often it implies trespass rather than violation and is the usual term in reference to encroachment upon a legally protected right or privilege
an infringement of a patent
an infringement upon a citizen's civil rights
contravention implies a going contrary to the law or an act in defiance of what is regarded as right, lawful, or obligatory
acts in direct contravention of the provisions of a treaty
in flagrant contravention of commonly accepted academic principles and practices — Key Reporter
so many judgments of common sense in contravention to the prevailing theories of our age — Reinhold Niebuhr
Synonyms:
break , split , schism , rent , rupture , rift : of these terms breach is the most general, carrying no implication of the cause or seriousness of the separation
the widening breach between himself and his mother — Thomas Hardy
flaws in the great structure, which were to widen into breaches — John Buchan
break signifies a breach but carries the idea of strain as a cause
a break between the formerly friendly countries over the disposition of foreign aid
split may imply a complete and usually irreparable breach
he became involved in the split of the Socialist party into the “broad” and “narrow” factions — Current Biography
too wide a split in the party's ranks to agree on an acceptable candidate
schism implies a clear-cut division of one group, often religious, into two groups, usually opposed, and a consequent discord and dissension between them
their families were on opposite sides of a schism that had occurred within the Society of Friends — Current Biography
to confirm its divisions, and to render apparently irreparable the schism in our culture — Hilaire Belloc
when the schism between craft and industrial unionism resulted in the formation of the CIO — American Guide Series: Tennessee
rent implies the literal sense of an opening, as in a fabric, made by tearing, even in its extended meaning suggesting the violence of the action and the jagged result
the violent squabble over the chairmanship caused a very visible rent in the generally amicable relations of the club members
a rent in the social fabric — Gilbert Millstein
rupture is like breach but carries more clearly the sense of a break in relations between people or groups, sometimes suggesting an actual break not clearly apparent
the rupture of diplomatic relations — New York Times
a disagreement between father and son led to a nine-year rupture of their relations — Current Biography
there was no violent rupture of relations; the physicians and surgeons must simply have drifted apart again — Harvey Graham
rift , carrying the idea of a breach by some natural process as the cracking of the earth, often suggests a small breach likely to get larger
this little rift it was that had widened to a now considerable breach — H.G.Wells
relations between the two groups were harmonious until politics caused a rift — American Guide Series: Texas
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
transitive verb
1.
a. : to make a breach in : smash a gap through : make a hole in by attrition
siege artillery would have been needed to breach the walls of the city — C.S.Forester
breaching a dam
b. : to effect an opening in : serve successfully as an entering wedge in
breach the wall of racial segregation
breaching his distant reserve
c. : to wear or cut an opening in especially by erosion
where the chalk of the South Downs is breached by the inlet — L.D.Stamp
d. : to make a gap through (an enemy minefield)
2. : break , violate
the Supreme Court … held that our contract had not been impaired but breached — Hodding Carter
breaching disastrously the whole structure of ideas by which … they live and govern — Walter Millis
intransitive verb
: to break the water by leaping out
they saw a whale spouting and breaching — Charles Kingsley