1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling.
Breake-leg.
Breast Fleet, subs. (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their
practice of crossing themselves on the breast as an act of devotion.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He (or she) belongs
to the breast fleet; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation
derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the
confession of their sins.
Breath. Change your breath, phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a
different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang expression which,
originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.
Breech, verb (schoolboys’).—To flog or be flogged; especially on the
posteriors. This verb was formerly in literary use, but has now fallen
into disuetude.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.).
Maides, up I beseech yee
Least Mistres doe breech yee.
1637. Massinger, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy
that had play’d the truant, And went to be breech’d.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxiv. ‘Go to,’ said Wayland, ‘thou art
a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.’
Breeched, ppl. adj. (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of
money; ‘to be well breeched,’ to be in good circumstances. Cf.,
Ballasted. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is
said to be déculotté—unbreeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his
Flash Dictionary [1812].
Breeches. To wear the breeches, phr. (common).—A phrase said only of
women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband’s prerogative; to be
‘master.’ An analogous phrase is ‘the grey mare is the better horse of
the two.’ [The derivation is obviously an allusion to breeches as the
symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood.] Murray traces the expression
back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much older. It is found in French
as early as 1450.
1450. Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition
Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu’il est avenu à
aucuns que l’en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter
les braies ou pour autres choses pires.
The idea is met with in English at about the same date in a carol, the
burden of which is founded on it:—
14(?). Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Percy Soc. Pub.,
vol. XXIII., p. 65.
Nova, nova, sawe you ever such,
The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych.