Break the Balls, verbal phr. (billiards).—To commence playing; a phrase very much akin to 'breaking ground'; indeed few verbs enter more largely into figurative or colloquial combinations than break.
Break the Molasses Jug, verbal phr. (American).—To come to grief; to make a mistake.
Break the Neck or Back of Anything, verbal phr. (common).—To accomplish the major portion of a task; to be near the end of an undertaking; to be past the middle of same.
Breaky-Leg, subs. (common).—1. Intoxicating drink of any kind. [A humorous allusion to one of the possible effects of confirmed drunkenness, or the weakness produced in one's legs by tippling.] For all synonyms, see Drinks.
2. (thieves'.)—A shilling.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling. Breake-leg.
Breast Fleet, subs. (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their practice of crossing themselves on the breast as an act of devotion.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He (or she) belongs to the breast fleet; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
Breath. Change your breath, phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang expression which, originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.
Breech, verb (schoolboys').—To flog or be flogged; especially on the posteriors. This verb was formerly in literary use, but has now fallen into disuetude.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.). Maides, up I beseech yee Least Mistres doe breech yee.
1637. Massinger, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy that had play'd the truant, And went to be breech'd.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxiv. 'Go to,' said Wayland, 'thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.'
Breeched, ppl. adj. (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of money; 'to be well breeched,' to be in good circumstances. Cf., Ballasted. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is said to be déculotté—un-*breeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his Flash Dictionary [1812].
Breeches. To wear the breeches, phr. (common).—A phrase said only of women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband's prerogative; to be 'master.' An analogous phrase is 'the grey mare is the better horse of the two.' [The derivation is obviously an allusion to breeches as the symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood.] Murray traces the expression back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much older. It is found in French as early as 1450.
1450. Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu'il est avenu à aucuns que l'en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter les braies ou pour autres choses pires.
