breeks

English

Etymology

From Middle English breke, Northern variant of brechis (“trousers”), from Old English brēċ (“breeches”), plural of brōc (“covering for the leg; trouser”). More at breeches.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹiːks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːks

Noun

breeks pl (plural only)

1. (Scotland) Pants, breeches.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 6:

     — Ah, poor dogsbody, he said in a kind voice. I must give you a shirt and a few noserags. How are the secondhand breeks?

   • 1930 July, John Buchan, “The First Day of the Hegira—The Inn at Watermeeting”, in Castle Gay, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 140:

     He was a loutish fellow, much bent in the shoulders, with leggings, which lacked most of the buttons, over his disreputable breeks.

   • 2002, Mickee Madden, Midnight Sun, page 144:

     Tane unfolded and rose to his full height. Naked, his tanned flesh glistening with sweat, he held out his arms and stretched out the kinks in his body. […] "Loan me some breeks."

Anagrams

• beserk

Scots

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːkz

Noun

breeks

1. breeches, trousers
   • The Plague o' Playin' Bools, in Poems and Songs chiefly in the Scottish Language (1877), edited by James M. Neilson:

     Bools are maybe walth tae him,

     But they're loss tae me;

     There he's comin' wi' his breeks

     Oot at ilka knee.

Descendants

• → Scottish Gaelic: briogais