breeching, vbl. n.
(ˈbriːtʃɪŋ)
[f. breech v. and n. + -ing1.]
1. The action of clothing with breeches; concr. clothing for the breech or haunches (obs.).
| 1604 S. Rowlands Look to it, etc. D ij b, You with..The Moncky wast, the breeching like a Beare. |
† 2. A flogging. Obs.
| 1520 Whittinton Vulg. (1527) 26, I studye to-daye bycause I fere a brechyng. 1590 Marlowe Edw. II, v. iv, Aristarchus' eyes, Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. 73 Worse than an vpbraiding lesson after a britching. a 1613 Overbury Char., Puny-Clarke (1638) L iij, His dreames of breeching. |
b. attrib. as in breeching boy, breeching-scholar, a young scholar still subject to the birch, hence fig. a novice. (Cf. also whipping-boy.)
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. i. 18, I am no breeching scholler in the schooles. 1611 Cotgr., s.v. Donat, The diuells were, as then, but breeching boyes, like Grammar Schoole boyes, but young in experience, but Nouices. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xx. 23 How such a breeching-boy as hee was, durst attempt so great a wickednesse. |
3. A strong leather strap passing round the breech of a shaft-horse, and enabling him to push backwards; a breech-band. Also attrib.
| 1515–24 in Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1838) I. 3 To William Pawn..cart-saddles, collars, harnes, and breeching. 1801 W. Felton Carriages II. 131 Breechings are of no use to them [horses] but in hilly places. Ibid. 134 It is buckled to the collar along with the breeching-strap. 1861 Musgrave By-Roads 174 An old female hostler, who gave us neither cruppers, blinkers, or breeching. |
4. Coarse clotted wool on the buttocks of sheep.
| 1799 Pitt in Commun. Board of Agric. II. 464 The Morf fleece is almost wholly fine, with a very small proportion of breechings or daglocks. |
5. Naut. A stout rope attached by a thimble to the cascabel of a gun, and securing the gun to the ship's side. Hence breeching-bolt, breeching-loop.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 65 Britchings are the ropes by which you lash your Ordnance fast to the Ships side. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Breeching, a rope used to secure the cannon..and prevent them from recoiling too much. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 100 Double breechings were rove on the guns. |
6. The parts forming the breech of a gun, the breech-action.
| 1802 Hull Advertiser 18 Dec. 3/1 An improved construction of breeching. 1816 P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsmen (1826) 35 This breeching was also patronized by the late Mr. Smith. |
7. ‘A bifurcated smoke-pipe in a furnace’.