breach
UK /ˈbɹiːt͡ʃ/ · US /ˈbɹit͡ʃ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms breaches breaching breached
- noun A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee / embankment; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence.
- noun The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
- noun (law) A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment. “breach of promise”
- noun A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling out.
- noun (figurative) A difference in opinions, social class, etc.
- noun A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves. “A clear breach is when the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean breach is when everything on deck is swept away.”
- noun A breaking out upon; an assault.
- noun (archaic) A bruise; a wound.
- verb (transitive) To make a breach in. “They breached the outer wall, but not the main one.”
- verb (transitive) To violate or break. “breach an agreement”
- verb (transitive, nautical, of the sea) To break into a ship or into a coastal defence.
- verb (intransitive) To suffer a breach.
- verb (intransitive, of a whale or other sea creature) To leap out of the water.
- verb (law, informal, transitive, usually passive) To charge, convict or take legal action against someone due to not meeting a legal obligation.
- proper noun (computing) A particular security exploit against HTTPS when using HTTP compression, based on the CRIME exploit.
Synonyms
break rupture fissure surge surf gap rift severance falling out transgress offend infract violate go against
Etymology
From Middle English breche, from Old English bryċe (“fracture, breach”) and brǣċ (“breach, breaking, destruction”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruki, from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”) and *brēkō (“breaking”).
Short for browser reconnaissance and exfiltration via adaptive compression of hypertext, chosen to spell the word breach.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
- noun 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.
- verb To make a breach or opening in; as, to breach the walls of a city.
- verb To break the water, as by leaping out; --said of a whale.
Etymology [OE. breke, breche, AS. brice, gebrice, gebrece (in comp.), fr. brecan to break; akin to Dan. bræk, MHG. breche, gap, breach. See Break, and cf. Brake (the instrument), Brack a break]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “breach”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details