breastwork

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English

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Etymology

From breast +‎ work.

Pronunciation

Noun

breastwork (plural breastworks)

  1. A fortification consisting of a breast-high bulwark; a parapet.
    • 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:
      Before long we had flung enough sand-bags into place to make a low breastwork behind which the few men who were on this side of the position could lie down and fire.
    • 1983, Richard J. Hargrove, General John Burgoyne, page 26:
      A cannonproof breastwork, built during the previous war, extended along the beach from the hills to the rocks.
  2. (nautical) A railing on the quarter-deck and forecastle.
    • 1878, J. W. King, Report of Chief Engineer J. W. King, United States Navy On European Ships of War and Their Armament, Naval Administration and Economy, Marine Constructions and Appliances, Dockyards, etc., etc.‎, Washington, page 287:
      The Independencia is a two-turreted, breastwork ship of 9,000 tons displacement. […] The central breastwork is 130 feet in length at the top of the belt, and extends to the upper deck, 11 feet above the water-line. This breastwork incloses the boiler and engine hatches, the scuttles to magazines and shell-rooms, the principal openings for ventilation, and the two turrets.
  3. A parapet.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 2]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:
      A swarthy boy opened a book and propped it nimbly under the breastwork of his satchel. He recited jerks of verse with odd glances at the text: […]
      A figurative use.
  4. (slang) Breast augmentation.

Alternative forms

Translations

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