breeches

• breeks (Scotland)
• britches (Appalachia, Southern US)

From Middle English breches, brechen pl, a variant of Middle English breche, brech, brek (“breeches”), from Old English brēċ (“underpants”), the plural of brōc (“legging, buttocks”), from Proto-West Germanic *brōk, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“crotch, legging, trousers”).

Akin to West Frisian broek (“leggings, over-trousers”), Dutch broek (“pair of trousers, underpants, long-johns”), obsolete German Bruch (“pair of hose, leggings, pants trousers”), Old Norse brók (“breeches”) (whence Danish brog); compare Latin brācae ( > French braies, Spanish bragas) which is immediately of Celtic origin, yet ultimately borrowed from the same Proto-Germanic source above. Compare brail.

• (plural of breech):

  IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiː.t͡ʃɪz/

  Audio (US):

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• (smallclothes; trousers):

  IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪ.t͡ʃɪz/ (traditional)

  Audio (US):

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  IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiː.t͡ʃɪz/ (more recent spelling pronunciation)

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃɪz, -iːtʃɪz

breeches

1. plural of breech

breeches pl (plural only, attributive breech)

1. (historical) A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes.
   • 1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 83:

     And how then was the Devil drest? / Oh! he was in his Sunday's best: / His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, / And there was a hole where the tail came through.

   • 1958 October, “Liverpool to London in 1842”, in Railway Magazine, page 682:

     "In the coach in which I rode, there was a vacant seat till our arrival in Birmingham. Leaving Birmingham I found it filled with a fat Englishman, in drab breeches and gaiter boots, the finest specimen of a thorough John Bull that I had seen—weight about sixteen stone. He wore two top coats, a broad brimmed hat, and an enormous red travelling shawl, behind the folds of which his portly double chin was entirely hidden.

2. (informal) Trousers; pantaloons.

   Synonyms: trousers, pants

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles:

     But now there's only old Manning, and young William, and a new-fashioned woman gardener in breeches and such-like.

• → Irish: bríste

• pantaloons
• britches
• jodhpurs

• breeches on Wikipedia.Wikipedia