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to breast

to breast

1 8.0
To move forward and push through something with the chest
  • verb
  • /brɛst/
: abrirse paso
  • With determination, she breasted the crowd to reach the front of the stage.
  • breast the wave
  • breast a river

Examples

  • After escorting the merchant ships to Cadiz, the Spanish commander, Admiral Cordova, will continue to breast to join forces with the French.

  • he trod the water, whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted the surge most swoln that met him;

  • Our huge bow-ramps breasted an easy tide coming from the mouth of the bay.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The Soviet tanker, Groznyy, breasts the heavy seas.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Both Bulgars and Serbs, primitive rugged fighters, through military science to the wind and plunged into battle face to face and breast to breast.

  • He took a deep breath and breasted the wave, diving under to swim to safety.

  • The athlete breasted the finish line, securing his victory in the marathon.

Synonyms

to front
vsto breast
8 4.4

To face something difficult or dangerous directly

push forward physically using the chest to break through an obstacle with power

Antonyms

225 4.0

To move back from a place or plan to avoid danger

Idioms

To tell the whole truth about something wrong you did

9.1

Show deep regret by hitting your chest and crying

Compounds

270 2.7

A serious disease in the breast where abnormal cells grow and form a lump

breast implant
  • Specialized
33 3.8

A device that doctors put inside a breast to rebuild or enlarge it

31 1.8

Milk made by a mother to feed her baby

10 2.4

A pocket on the chest of a jacket or coat for small items

How healthy a person's breasts are and how free they are from disease

chicken breast
  • Archaic
1 8.2

A bone in the chest that sticks out, often in children with rickets

A cut of meat from the front chest of a young cow often stuffed and roasted

1 7.4

At a height that reaches a person's chest

A cut of lamb with the breastbone and meat around it, often roasted or used in stews

1 7.9

The part of a wall that sticks into a room to hold a fireplace

1 3.3

A non-cancerous breast condition with small fluid lumps and firm areas that can be painful

A breast condition with small fluid-filled lumps and firm tissue that is not cancer and may cause pain

At the level of a person's chest

breast drill
  • Specialized
8.1

A hand tool with a rotating metal bit and a flat plate you press against the chest to make holes

cystic breast disease
  • Specialized
4.6

Small lumps filled with fluid form in the breast tissue

pigeon breast
  • Specialized
9.9

A condition where the chest bone sticks out too far

How Forceful

to charge
150 3.6
to barge
  • Informal
86 6.0
to breast
1 8.0
to push
∞ 1.0
to edge
52 3.9

Surface Forms

breast infinitive
breasted past
breasted past participle
breasting present participle
breasts third person singular

Etymology

The verb breast comes from the noun breast ('chest'); to breast something is to meet it with your chest or push forward against it, so it means to confront or break through.