breach

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An act of breaking a law, rule, agreement, or promise.

   Sharing the documents was a serious breach of contract.

2. 2
   verb

   To break a law, rule, or agreement.

   Your actions clearly breached the rules we had agreed on.

3. 3
   noun

   A gap or hole made by breaking through something, such as a wall.

   The flood opened a breach in the embankment.

4. 4
   noun

   A serious break in a friendly relationship between people or groups.

   A breach opened up between the two old friends that was never repaired.

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”).

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