breeches [ME] Breeches are old-fashioned trousers that are now worn for riding or as part of ceremonial dress. Like trousers and pants (see pantaloons), the word is now always plural, but it used to be singular. From Anglo-Saxon times until the 16th century a breech was a garment covering the groin and thighs, like a loincloth or kilt, still found in the old-fashioned breech-clout [M18th]. A breech was also a person’s bottom, a sense which survives in breech birth [M19th], in which the buttocks or feet of a baby are delivered first. The idea of ‘back’ or ‘end’ is also preserved in the breech of a gun [L16th], the back part of the barrel.