The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\ (br[=e]ch), n. [OE. breke, breche, AS. brice,
   gebrice, gebrece (in comp.), fr. brecan to break; akin to
   Dan. br[ae]k, MHG. breche, gap, breach. See Break, and cf.
   Brake (the instrument), Brack a break] .
   1. The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
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   2. Specifically: A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any
      obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment; as, a
      breach of contract; a breach of promise.
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   3. A gap or opening made made by breaking or battering, as in
      a wall or fortification; the space between the parts of a
      solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture.
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            Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
            Or close the wall up with our English dead. --Shak.
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   4. A breaking of waters, as over a vessel; the waters
      themselves; surge; surf.
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            The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before
            me, as the breach of waters.          --2 Sam. v.
                                                  20.
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   A clear breach implies that the waves roll over the vessel
      without breaking.

   A clean breach implies that everything on deck is swept
      away. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
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   5. A breaking up of amicable relations; rupture.
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            There's fallen between him and my lord
            An unkind breach.                     --Shak.
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   6. A bruise; a wound.
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            Breach for breach, eye for eye.       --Lev. xxiv.
                                                  20.
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   7. (Med.) A hernia; a rupture.
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   8. A breaking out upon; an assault.
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            The Lord had made a breach upon Uzza. --1. Chron.
                                                  xiii. 11.
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   Breach of falth, a breaking, or a failure to keep, an
      expressed or implied promise; a betrayal of confidence or
      trust.

   Breach of peace, disorderly conduct, disturbing the public
      peace.

   Breach of privilege, an act or default in violation of the
      privilege or either house of Parliament, of Congress, or
      of a State legislature, as, for instance, by false
      swearing before a committee. --Mozley. Abbott.
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   Breach of promise, violation of one's plighted word, esp.
      of a promise to marry.

   Breach of trust, violation of one's duty or faith in a
      matter entrusted to one.
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   Syn: Rent; cleft; chasm; rift; aperture; gap; break;
        disruption; fracture; rupture; infraction; infringement;
        violation; quarrel; dispute; contention; difference;
        misunderstanding.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Breached; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Breaching.]
   To make a breach or opening in; as, to breach the walls of a
   city.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Breach \Breach\, v. i.
   To break the water, as by leaping out; -- said of a whale.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

breach
    n 1: a failure to perform some promised act or obligation
    2: an opening (especially a gap in a dike or fortification)
    3: a personal or social separation (as between opposing
       factions); "they hoped to avoid a break in relations" [syn:
       rupture, breach, break, severance, rift, falling
       out]
    v 1: act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises;
         "offend all laws of humanity"; "violate the basic laws or
         human civilization"; "break a law"; "break a promise" [syn:
         transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against,
         breach, break] [ant: keep, observe]
    2: make an opening or gap in [syn: gap, breach]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

212 Moby Thesaurus words for "breach":
   abysm, abyss, alienation, arroyo, atrocity, bad faith, bore,
   box canyon, breach of contract, breach of faith,
   breach of friendship, breach of privilege, breach of promise,
   breach of trust, break, break in, break into, break open,
   break through, breakage, breaking, burst, burst in, bust, bust in,
   caesura, canyon, cave in, cavity, cessation, chap, chasm, check,
   chimney, chink, chip, cleavage, cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, col,
   contravene, contravention, coulee, couloir, crack, cranny,
   crevasse, crevice, crime, crime against humanity, cut, cut apart,
   cwm, deadly sin, defile, delinquency, dell, dereliction,
   difference, dike, disaffection, discontinuity, discord, disfavor,
   disharmony, disobedience, disregard, disrupt, disruption,
   dissension, disunion, disunity, ditch, divergence, dividedness,
   division, donga, draw, enormity, error, estrangement, evil,
   excavation, exfoliate, failure, falling-out, fault, felony,
   fissure, flaw, flume, force open, fracture, furrow, gap, gape,
   gash, genocide, gorge, groove, guilty act, gulch, gulf, gully,
   heavy sin, hiatus, hole, impropriety, incise, incision,
   indiscretion, inexpiable sin, infract, infraction, infringe,
   infringement, iniquity, injury, injustice, interim, intermission,
   interruption, interval, invade, joint, kloof, lacuna, lapse, leak,
   letup, lull, malefaction, malfeasance, malum, minor wrong, misdeed,
   misdemeanor, misfeasance, moat, mortal sin, neglect, nonfeasance,
   nonobservance, notch, nullah, offend, offense, omission, open,
   open fire, open rupture, open up, opening, outrage, pass, passage,
   pause, peccadillo, peccancy, penetrate, prize open, quarrel,
   ravine, recall of ambassadors, rent, rift, rime, rip, rive,
   rupture, scale, schism, scissure, seam, secession, separation,
   severance, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act,
   slash, slice, slip, slit, slot, snap, splinter, split, split open,
   stove in, strife, suspension, tear, tear open, tort, transgress,
   transgression, trench, trespass, trip, unutterable sin, valley,
   variance, venial sin, violation, void, wadi, withdrawal, wrong



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Breach
   an opening in a wall (1 Kings 11:27; 2 Kings 12:5); the fracture
   of a limb (Lev. 24:20), and hence the expression, "Heal, etc."
   (Ps. 60:2). Judg. 5:17, a bay or harbour; R.V., "by his creeks."


Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

BREACH, contract, torts. The violation of an obligation, engagement or duty;
as a breach of covenant is the non-performance or violation of a covenant;
the breach of a promise is non-performance of a promise; the breach of a
duty, is the refusal or neglect to execute an office or public trust,
according to law.
     2. Breaches of a contract are single or continuing breaches. The former
are those which are committed at one single time. Skin. 367; Carth. 289. A
continuing breach is one committed at different times, as, if a covenant to
repair be broken at one time, and the same covenant be again broken, it is a
continuing breach. Moore, 242; 1 Leon. 62; 1 Salk. 141; Holt, 178; Lord
Raym. 1125. When a covenant running with the land is assigned after a single
breach, the right of action for such breach does not pass to the assignee
but if it be assigned after the commencement of a continuing breach, the
right of action then vests in such assignee. Cro. Eliz. 863; 8 Taunt. 227;,
2 Moore, 164; 1 Leon. 62.
     3. In general the remedy for breaches of contracts, or quasi contracts,
is by a civil action.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

BREACH. pleading. That part of the declaration in which the violation of the
defendant's contract is stated.
     2. It is usual in assumpsit to introduce the statement of the
particular breach, with the allegation that the defendant, contriving and
fraudulently intending craftily and subtilely to deceive and defraud the
plaintiff, neglected and refused to perform, or performed the particular act
contrary to the previous stipulation. ?
     3. In debt, the breach or cause of action. complained of must proceed
only for the non-payment of money previously alleged to be payable; and such
breach is nearly similar, whether the action be in debt on simple contract,
specially, record or statute, and is usually of the following form: " Yet
the said defendant, although often requested so to, do, hath not as yet paid
the said sum of ____ dollars, above demanded, nor any part thereof, to the
said plaintiff, but bath hitherto wholly neglected and refused so to do, to
the damage of the said plaintiff _________  dollars, and therefore he brings
suit," &c.
     4. The breach must obviously be governed by the nature of the
stipulation; it ought to be assigned in the words of the contract, either
negatively or affirmatively, or in words which are co-extensive with its
import and effect. Com. Dig. Pleader, C 45 to 49; 2 Saund. 181, b, c; 6
Cranch, 127; and see 5 John. R. 168; 8 John. R. 111; 7 John. R. 376; 4 Dall.
436; 2 Hen. & Munf. 446.
     5. When the contract is in the disjunctive, as, on a promise to deliver
a horse by a particular day, or pay a sum of money, the breach ought to be
assigned that the defendant did not do the one act nor the other. 1 Sid.
440; Hardr. 320; Com. Dig. Pleader, C.