Defn: A strong iron or steel plug screwed into the breech of a musket or other firearm, to close the bottom of the bore.
BREECH SIGHT
Breech" sight`.
Defn: A device attached to the breech of a firearm, to guide the eye, in conjunction with the front sight, in taking aim.
BREED
Breed, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bred; p. pr. & vb. n. Breeding.] Etym:
[OE. breden, AS. bredan to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from brod
brood; akin to D. broeden to brood, OHG. bruoten, G. brüten. See
Brood.]
1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch. Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. Shak. If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. Shak.
2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring
up; to nurse and foster.
To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed. Dryden.
Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness. Everett.
3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; — sometimes followed by up. But no care was taken to breed him a Protestant. Bp. Burnet. His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. Locke.
4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease. Lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment. Milton.
5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.
6. To raise, as any kind of stock.