n. 1. (Bot.) The English cow parsnip (Heracleum sphondylium) Dr. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. a widely cultivated southern European acanthus (Acanthus mollis) with whitish purple-veined flowers. See Acanthus, n., 1.
Syn. -- bear's breech, bear's-breech, bear's breeches, sea holly. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n.; pl. Beeches [ OE. beche, AS. b&unr_;ce; akin to D. beuk, OHG. buocha, G. buche, Icel. beyki, Dan. bög, Sw. bok, Russ. buk, L. fagus, Gr. &unr_; oak, &unr_; to eat, Skr. bhaksh; the tree being named originally from the esculent fruit. See Book, and cf. 7th Buck, Buckwheat. ] (Bot.) A tree of the genus Fagus. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It grows to a large size, having a smooth bark and thick foliage, and bears an edible triangular nut, of which swine are fond. The Fagus sylvatica is the European species, and the Fagus ferruginea that of America. [ 1913 Webster ]

Beech drops (Bot.), a parasitic plant which grows on the roots of beeches (Epiphegus Americana). --
Beech marten (Zool.), the stone marten of Europe (Mustela foina). --
Beech mast, the nuts of the beech, esp. as they lie under the trees, in autumn. --
Beech oil, oil expressed from the mast or nuts of the beech tree. --
Cooper beech, a variety of the European beech with copper-colored, shining leaves. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ AS. b&unr_;cen. ] Consisting, or made, of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech. “Plain beechen vessels.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The nut of the beech tree. [ 1913 Webster ]

The beech. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or relating to beeches. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Solicitation; supplication. [ Obs. or Poetic ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Besought p. pr. & vb. n. Beseeching. ] [ OE. bisechen, biseken (akin to G. besuchen to visit); pref. be- + sechen, seken, to seek. See Seek. ] 1. To ask or entreat with urgency; to supplicate; to implore. [ 1913 Webster ]

I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

But Eve . . . besought his peace. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To beg; to crave. -- To Beseech, Entreat, Solicit, Implore, Supplicate. These words agree in marking that sense of want which leads men to beg some favor. To solicit is to make a request, with some degree of earnestness and repetition, of one whom we address as a superior. To entreat implies greater urgency, usually enforced by adducing reasons or arguments. To beseech is still stronger, and belongs rather to the language of poetry and imagination. To implore denotes increased fervor of entreaty, as addressed either to equals or superiors. To supplicate expresses the extreme of entreaty, and usually implies a state of deep humiliation. Thus, a captive supplicates a conqueror to spare his life. Men solicit by virtue of their interest with another; they entreat in the use of reasoning and strong representations; they beseech with importunate earnestness; they implore from a sense of overwhelming distress; they supplicate with a feeling of the most absolute inferiority and dependence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who beseeches. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Entreating urgently; imploring; as, a beseeching look. -- Be*seech"ing*ly, adv. -- Be*seech"ing*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of beseeching or entreating earnestly. [ R. ] Goodwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Breeches. ] 1. The lower part of the body behind; the buttocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Breeches. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The hinder part of anything; esp., the part of a cannon, or other firearm, behind the chamber. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Naut.) The external angle of knee timber, the inside of which is called the throat. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Breeched p. pr. & vb. n. Breeching ] 1. To put into, or clothe with, breeches. [ 1913 Webster ]

A great man . . . anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy was breeched. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cover as with breeches. [ Poetic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fit or furnish with a breech; as, to breech a gun. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To whip on the breech. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Had not a courteous serving man conveyed me away, whilst he went to fetch whips, I think, in my conscience, he would have breeched me. Old Play. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To fasten with breeching. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The breech mechanism in breech-loading small arms and certain special guns, as automatic and machine guns; -- used frequently in referring to the method by which the movable barrels of breech-loading shotguns are locked, unlocked, or rotated to loading position. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The movable piece which closes the breech of a breech-loading firearm, and resists the backward force of the discharge. It is withdrawn for the insertion of a cartridge, and closed again before the gun is fired. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A cloth worn around the breech. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. covering for the loins.
Syn. -- breechcloth, loincloth, G-string. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. dressed in trousers.
Syn. -- pantalooned, trousered. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. pl. [ OE. brech, brek, AS. brēk, pl. of brōc breech, breeches; akin to Icel. brōk breeches, ODan. brog, D. broek, G. bruch; cf. L. bracae, braccae, which is of Celtic origin. Cf. Brail. ] 1. A garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs; smallclothes. [ 1913 Webster ]

His jacket was red, and his breeches were blue. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Trousers; pantaloons. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Breeches buoy, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines. --
Breeches pipe, a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end. --
Knee breeches, breeches coming to the knee, and buckled or fastened there; smallclothes. --
To wear the breeches, to usurp the authority of the husband; -- said of a wife. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A whipping on the breech, or the act of whipping on the breech. [ 1913 Webster ]

I view the prince with Aristarchus' eyes,
Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy. Marlowe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That part of a harness which passes round the breech of a horse, enabling him to hold back a vehicle. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Naut.) A strong rope rove through the cascabel of a cannon and secured to ringbolts in the ship's side, to limit the recoil of the gun when it is discharged. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The sheet iron casing at the end of boilers to convey the smoke from the flues to the smokestack. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A firearm which receives its load at the breech. [ 1913 Webster ]

For cavalry, the revolver and breechloader will supersede the saber. Rep. Sec. War (1860). [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Receiving the charge at the breech instead of at the muzzle. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } A strong iron or steel plug screwed into the breech of a musket or other firearm, to close the bottom of the bore. [ 1913 Webster ]

A device attached to the breech of a firearm, to guide the eye, in conjunction with the front sight, in taking aim. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An incidental or casual speech, not directly relating to the point. “To quote by-speeches.” Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a cake or sweet bread usually glazed after baking, and having added nuts and fruits; it is often served with coffee.
Syn. -- coffee cake. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. [ 2d cow + leech a physician. ] One who heals diseases of cows; a cow doctor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Healing the distemper of cows. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.), a delicate perennial spring-flowering herb (Dicentra cucullaria) of eastern U.S., having peculiar double-spurred white flowers. See Illust. of Dicentra
Syn. -- Dicentra cucullaria. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. flees, AS. fleós; akin to D. flies, vlies. ] 1. The entire coat of wool that covers a sheep or other similar animal; also, the quantity shorn from a sheep, or animal, at one time. [ 1913 Webster ]

Who shore me
Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Manuf.) The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fleece wool, wool shorn from the sheep. --
Golden fleece. See under Golden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Fleeced p. pr. & vb. n. Fleecing. ] 1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially by trickery or fraud; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them, the people were finely fleeced. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To spread over as with wool. [ R. ] Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Furnished with a fleece; as, a sheep is well fleeced. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Stripped of a fleece; plundered; robbed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Without a fleece. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who fleeces or strips unjustly, especially by trickery or fraund. Prynne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Covered with, made of, or resembling, a fleece. “Fleecy flocks.” Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A preface. [ Obs. ] Sherwood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. See Gree a step. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) A large blood-sucking leech (Hæmopsis vorax), of Europe and Northern Africa. It attacks the lips and mouths of horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A farrier; a veterinary surgeon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The business of a farrier; especially, the art of curing the diseases of horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A speech interposed between others. [ R. ] Blount. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Prov. E. keech a cake. ] A mass or lump of fat rolled up by the butcher. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Anat.) A roundish, flattened, sesamoid bone in the tendon in front of the knee joint; the patella; the kneepan. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A cap or protection for the knee.

v. t. to break the knees of, especially by shooting in the kneecap; -- often done by criminal or terrorist groups as a warning or punishment.
Syn. -- knee-cap. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. See 2d Leach. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. See Leach, v. t. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. LG. leik, Icel. līk, Sw. lik boltrope, stående liken the leeches. ] (Naut.) The border or edge at the side of a sail. [ Written also leach. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Leech line, a line attached to the leech ropes of sails, passing up through blocks on the yards, to haul the leeches by. Totten. --
Leech rope, that part of the boltrope to which the side of a sail is sewed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. leche, læche, physician, AS. l&aemacr_;ce; akin to Fries. lētza, OHG. lāhhī, Icel. læknari, Sw. läkare, Dan. læge, Goth. lēkeis, AS. lācnian to heal, Sw. läka, Dan. læge, Icel. lækna, Goth. lēkinōn. ] 1. A physician or surgeon; a professor of the art of healing. [ Written also leach. ] [ Archaic ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Leech, heal thyself. Wyclif (Luke iv. 23).

2. (Zool.) Any one of numerous genera and species of annulose worms, belonging to the order Hirudinea, or Bdelloidea, esp. those species used in medicine, as Hirudo medicinalis of Europe, and allied species. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the mouth of bloodsucking leeches are three convergent, serrated jaws, moved by strong muscles. By the motion of these jaws a stellate incision is made in the skin, through which the leech sucks blood till it is gorged, and then drops off. The stomach has large pouches on each side to hold the blood. The common large bloodsucking leech of America (Macrobdella decora) is dark olive above, and red below, with black spots. Many kinds of leeches are parasitic on fishes; others feed upon worms and mollusks, and have no jaws for drawing blood. See Bdelloidea. Hirudinea, and Clepsine. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Surg.) A glass tube of peculiar construction, adapted for drawing blood from a scarified part by means of a vacuum. [ 1913 Webster ]

Horse leech, a less powerful European leech (Hæmopis vorax), commonly attacking the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals that drink at pools where it lives. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Leeched p. pr. & vb. n. Leeching. ] 1. To treat as a surgeon; to doctor; as, to leech wounds. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bleed by the use of leeches. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The art of healing; skill of a physician. [ Archaic ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. See Mich. [ Obs. or Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]