Search Result for "breach": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. a failure to perform some promised act or obligation;

2. an opening (especially a gap in a dike or fortification);

3. a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions);
- Example: "they hoped to avoid a break in relations"
[syn: rupture, breach, break, severance, rift, falling out]


VERB (2)

1. act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises;
- Example: "offend all laws of humanity"
- Example: "violate the basic laws or human civilization"
- Example: "break a law"
- Example: "break a promise"
[syn: transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against, breach, break]

2. make an opening or gap in;
[syn: gap, breach]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\ (br[=e]ch), n. [OE. breke, breche, AS. brice, gebrice, gebrece (in comp.), fr. brecan to break; akin to Dan. br[ae]k, MHG. breche, gap, breach. See Break, and cf. Brake (the instrument), Brack a break] . 1. The act of breaking, in a figurative sense. [1913 Webster] 2. Specifically: A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment; as, a breach of contract; a breach of promise. [1913 Webster] 3. A gap or opening made made by breaking or battering, as in a wall or fortification; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture. [1913 Webster] Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 4. A breaking of waters, as over a vessel; the waters themselves; surge; surf. [1913 Webster] The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. --2 Sam. v. 20. [1913 Webster] A clear breach implies that the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean breach implies that everything on deck is swept away. --Ham. Nav. Encyc. [1913 Webster] 5. A breaking up of amicable relations; rupture. [1913 Webster] There's fallen between him and my lord An unkind breach. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. A bruise; a wound. [1913 Webster] Breach for breach, eye for eye. --Lev. xxiv. 20. [1913 Webster] 7. (Med.) A hernia; a rupture. [1913 Webster] 8. A breaking out upon; an assault. [1913 Webster] The Lord had made a breach upon Uzza. --1. Chron. xiii. 11. [1913 Webster] Breach of falth, a breaking, or a failure to keep, an expressed or implied promise; a betrayal of confidence or trust. Breach of peace, disorderly conduct, disturbing the public peace. Breach of privilege, an act or default in violation of the privilege or either house of Parliament, of Congress, or of a State legislature, as, for instance, by false swearing before a committee. --Mozley. Abbott. [1913 Webster] Breach of promise, violation of one's plighted word, esp. of a promise to marry. Breach of trust, violation of one's duty or faith in a matter entrusted to one. [1913 Webster] Syn: Rent; cleft; chasm; rift; aperture; gap; break; disruption; fracture; rupture; infraction; infringement; violation; quarrel; dispute; contention; difference; misunderstanding. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Breached; p. pr. & vb. n. Breaching.] To make a breach or opening in; as, to breach the walls of a city. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\, v. i. To break the water, as by leaping out; -- said of a whale. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

breach n 1: a failure to perform some promised act or obligation 2: an opening (especially a gap in a dike or fortification) 3: a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions); "they hoped to avoid a break in relations" [syn: rupture, breach, break, severance, rift, falling out] v 1: act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises; "offend all laws of humanity"; "violate the basic laws or human civilization"; "break a law"; "break a promise" [syn: transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against, breach, break] [ant: keep, observe] 2: make an opening or gap in [syn: gap, breach]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

212 Moby Thesaurus words for "breach": abysm, abyss, alienation, arroyo, atrocity, bad faith, bore, box canyon, breach of contract, breach of faith, breach of friendship, breach of privilege, breach of promise, breach of trust, break, break in, break into, break open, break through, breakage, breaking, burst, burst in, bust, bust in, caesura, canyon, cave in, cavity, cessation, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink, chip, cleavage, cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, col, contravene, contravention, coulee, couloir, crack, cranny, crevasse, crevice, crime, crime against humanity, cut, cut apart, cwm, deadly sin, defile, delinquency, dell, dereliction, difference, dike, disaffection, discontinuity, discord, disfavor, disharmony, disobedience, disregard, disrupt, disruption, dissension, disunion, disunity, ditch, divergence, dividedness, division, donga, draw, enormity, error, estrangement, evil, excavation, exfoliate, failure, falling-out, fault, felony, fissure, flaw, flume, force open, fracture, furrow, gap, gape, gash, genocide, gorge, groove, guilty act, gulch, gulf, gully, heavy sin, hiatus, hole, impropriety, incise, incision, indiscretion, inexpiable sin, infract, infraction, infringe, infringement, iniquity, injury, injustice, interim, intermission, interruption, interval, invade, joint, kloof, lacuna, lapse, leak, letup, lull, malefaction, malfeasance, malum, minor wrong, misdeed, misdemeanor, misfeasance, moat, mortal sin, neglect, nonfeasance, nonobservance, notch, nullah, offend, offense, omission, open, open fire, open rupture, open up, opening, outrage, pass, passage, pause, peccadillo, peccancy, penetrate, prize open, quarrel, ravine, recall of ambassadors, rent, rift, rime, rip, rive, rupture, scale, schism, scissure, seam, secession, separation, severance, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act, slash, slice, slip, slit, slot, snap, splinter, split, split open, stove in, strife, suspension, tear, tear open, tort, transgress, transgression, trench, trespass, trip, unutterable sin, valley, variance, venial sin, violation, void, wadi, withdrawal, wrong
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Breach an opening in a wall (1 Kings 11:27; 2 Kings 12:5); the fracture of a limb (Lev. 24:20), and hence the expression, "Heal, etc." (Ps. 60:2). Judg. 5:17, a bay or harbour; R.V., "by his creeks."
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

BREACH, contract, torts. The violation of an obligation, engagement or duty; as a breach of covenant is the non-performance or violation of a covenant; the breach of a promise is non-performance of a promise; the breach of a duty, is the refusal or neglect to execute an office or public trust, according to law. 2. Breaches of a contract are single or continuing breaches. The former are those which are committed at one single time. Skin. 367; Carth. 289. A continuing breach is one committed at different times, as, if a covenant to repair be broken at one time, and the same covenant be again broken, it is a continuing breach. Moore, 242; 1 Leon. 62; 1 Salk. 141; Holt, 178; Lord Raym. 1125. When a covenant running with the land is assigned after a single breach, the right of action for such breach does not pass to the assignee but if it be assigned after the commencement of a continuing breach, the right of action then vests in such assignee. Cro. Eliz. 863; 8 Taunt. 227;, 2 Moore, 164; 1 Leon. 62. 3. In general the remedy for breaches of contracts, or quasi contracts, is by a civil action.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

BREACH. pleading. That part of the declaration in which the violation of the defendant's contract is stated. 2. It is usual in assumpsit to introduce the statement of the particular breach, with the allegation that the defendant, contriving and fraudulently intending craftily and subtilely to deceive and defraud the plaintiff, neglected and refused to perform, or performed the particular act contrary to the previous stipulation. ? 3. In debt, the breach or cause of action. complained of must proceed only for the non-payment of money previously alleged to be payable; and such breach is nearly similar, whether the action be in debt on simple contract, specially, record or statute, and is usually of the following form: " Yet the said defendant, although often requested so to, do, hath not as yet paid the said sum of ____ dollars, above demanded, nor any part thereof, to the said plaintiff, but bath hitherto wholly neglected and refused so to do, to the damage of the said plaintiff _________ dollars, and therefore he brings suit," &c. 4. The breach must obviously be governed by the nature of the stipulation; it ought to be assigned in the words of the contract, either negatively or affirmatively, or in words which are co-extensive with its import and effect. Com. Dig. Pleader, C 45 to 49; 2 Saund. 181, b, c; 6 Cranch, 127; and see 5 John. R. 168; 8 John. R. 111; 7 John. R. 376; 4 Dall. 436; 2 Hen. & Munf. 446. 5. When the contract is in the disjunctive, as, on a promise to deliver a horse by a particular day, or pay a sum of money, the breach ought to be assigned that the defendant did not do the one act nor the other. 1 Sid. 440; Hardr. 320; Com. Dig. Pleader, C.