BREAST • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... "sullen" and "ill-tempered" people have a long-lasting anger, but for different reasons. For a "sullen" person has an abiding anger on account of an abiding displeasure, which he holds locked in his breast; and as he does not break forth into the outward signs of anger, others cannot reason him out of it, nor does he of his own accord lay aside his anger, except his displeasure wear away with time and thus his anger cease. ...

— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... do," said Morris, turning to go; and his cold, stern manner stung the boy, whose mind was now flooded with the recollection of all that Singh had told him, and a feeling of resentment sprang up within his breast. ...

— Glyn Severn's Schooldays • George Manville Fenn

... intuitions. Surely, the clergyman thought, to-night he will feel the truth and my lie. To-night he will understand that it is useless to wait, that the wonder-child can never come to this island, for he came on the breast of the sea long ago. And if he does know, now, at this moment, while the ...

— Tongues of Conscience • Robert Smythe Hichens

... grew the pace. The rearmost dog was now no more than a drag, and reaching a keen-edged knife far out over the end of the sledge Wabi severed his breast strap and the exhausted animal rolled out free beside the trail. Two others of the team were pulling scarce a pound, another was running lame, and the trail behind was spotted with pads of blood. Each minute added to the despair that was growing in the youth's face. ...

— The Gold Hunters - A Story of Life and Adventure in the Hudson Bay Wilds • James Oliver Curwood

... the land and the people and of the violence of sunshine. They slept thrown across the thwarts, curled on bottom-boards, in the careless attitudes of death. The head of the old skipper, leaning back in the stern of the long-boat, had fallen on his breast, and he looked as though he would never wake. Farther out old Mahon's face was upturned to the sky, with the long white beard spread out on his breast, as though he had been shot where he sat at the tiller; and a man, all in a heap in the bows ...

— Youth • Joseph Conrad

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