unbreech

English

Etymology

un- +‎ breech

Verb

unbreech (third-person singular simple present unbreeches, present participle unbreeching, simple past and past participle unbreeched)

1. (transitive) To remove the breeches of.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Looking on the lines
     Of my boy's face, my thoughts I did recoil
     Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd

2. (military, transitive) To free the breech of (a cannon etc.) from its fastenings or coverings.
   • 1801, Thomas Pennant, A journey from London to the Isle of Wight:

     She was overladen with guns , some were unbreeched , and her port - holes left open

References

• “unbreech”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Buechner