Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Breeches
Breech′es
(brĭch′ĕz)
, Noun.
pl.
[OE.
brech
, brek
, AS. brēk
, pl. of brōc
breech, breeches; akin to Icel. brōk
breeches, ODan. brog
, D. broek
, G. bruch
; cf. L. bracae
, braccae
, which is of Celtic origin. Cf. Brail
.] 1.
A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes.
His jacket was red, and his
breeches
were blue. Coleridge.
2.
Trousers; pantaloons.
[Colloq.]
Breeches buoy
, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines.
– Breeches pipe
, a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end.
– Knee breeches
, breeches coming to the knee, and buckled or fastened there; smallclothes.
– To wear the breeches
, to usurp the authority of the husband; – said of a wife.
[Colloq.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Breeches
BREECHES
,Noun.
plu.
A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs. It is now a close garment; but the word formerly was used for a loose garment, now called trowsers, laxoe braccoe.
To wear the breeches is, in the wife, to usurp the authority of the husband.