Reach vs Breach - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between reach and breach

is that reach is to extend; to stretch; to thrust out; to put forth, as a limb, a member, something held, or the like while breach is to make a breach in.

As nouns the difference between reach and breach

is that reach is the act of stretching or extending; extension; power of reaching or touching with the person, or a limb, or something held or thrown while breach is a gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture; a fissure.

As an acronym REACH

is Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals

reach

English

Verb

(es)

To extend; to stretch; to thrust out; to put forth, as a limb, a member, something held, or the like.

Hence, to deliver by stretching out a member, especially the hand; to give with the hand; to pass to another; to hand over.

To attain or obtain by stretching forth the hand; to extend some part of the body, or something held by one, so as to touch, strike, grasp, etc.

To strike or touch with a missile.

Hence, to extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut, as far as.

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.}}

To extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.

* Milton

Thy desire leads to no excess / That reaches blame.

To arrive at by effort of any kind; to attain to; to gain; to be advanced to.

* Cheyne

The best account of the appearances of nature which human penetration can reach , comes short of its reality.

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,

(obsolete) To understand; to comprehend.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

Do what, sir? I reach you not.

(obsolete) To overreach; to deceive.

(South)

To stretch out the hand.

To strain after something; to make efforts.

To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously ((past), (beyond), (above), (from) etc. something).

* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 4:

The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide.

(nautical) To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.

Usage notes

* In the past, raught'', ''rought'' and ''retcht could be found as past tense forms; these are now obsolete, except perhaps in some dialects.

Derived terms

* far-reaching * forereach * outreach * overreach * reachable * reach an early grave * reach for the stars * rereach *

Noun

(es)

The act of stretching or extending; extension; power of reaching or touching with the person, or a limb, or something held or thrown.

The fruit is beyond my reach .

to be within reach of cannon shot

* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI

and we have learned not to fire at any of the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after hitting them in the brain or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their hearts—it takes them so long to die.

The power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity.

* Hayward

Drawn by others who had deeper reaches than themselves to matters which they least intended.

* Alexander Pope

Be sure yourself and your own reach to know.

Extent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope.

* Milton

And on the left hand, hell, / With long reach , interposed.

* Shakespeare

I am to pray you not to strain my speech / To grosser issues, nor to larger reach / Than to suspicion.

(informal) An exaggeration; an extension beyond evidence or normal; a stretch.

To call George eloquent is certainly a reach .

(boxing) The distance a boxer's arm can extend to land a blow.

An extended portion of land or water; a stretch; a straight portion of a stream or river, as from one turn to another; a level stretch, as between locks in a canal; an arm of the sea extending up into the land.

* Tennyson

The river's wooded reach .

* Holland

The coast is very full of creeks and reaches .

(nautical) Any point of sail in which the wind comes from the side of a vessel, excluding close-hauled.

(obsolete) An article to obtain an advantage.

* Francis Bacon

The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own underhand to cross the design.

The pole or rod connecting the rear axle with the forward bolster of a wagon.

An effort to vomit; a retching.

Derived terms

* arm's reach * beam reach * boardinghouse reach * broad reach * dry reach * earreach * eyereach * gunreach * reach-around * reachless

Statistics

Anagrams

* * 1000 English basic words ----

breach

English

(wikipedia breach)

Noun

(es)

A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture; a fissure.

* 1599 , , Henry V , act 3, scene 1:

"Once more unto the breach , dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead."

A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling-out.

* Shakespeare

There's fallen between him and my lord / An unkind breach .

A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves; surge; surf.

A clear breach''' is when the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean '''breach is when everything on deck is swept away.

* Bible, 2 Sam. v. 20

The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters.

* 1719 , :

I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore.

A breaking out upon; an assault.

* Bible, 1 Chron. xiii. 11

The Lord had made a breach upon Uzza.

(archaic) A bruise; a wound.

* Bible, Leviticus xxiv. 20

breach for breach, eye for eye

(archaic) A hernia; a rupture.

(legal) 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.

(figurative) A difference in opinions, social class etc.

* 2013 September 28, , " London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

For London to have its own exclusive immigration policy would exacerbate the sense that immigration benefits only certain groups and disadvantages the rest. It would entrench the gap between London and the rest of the nation. And it would widen the breach between the public and the elite that has helped fuel anti-immigrant hostility.

The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.

* 1748 , David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding , Section 3, § 12:

But were the poet to make a total difression from his subject, and introduce a new actor, nowise connected with the personages, the imagination, feeling a breach in transition, would enter coldly into the new scene;

Synonyms

* break * rift * rupture * gap

Derived terms

* breach of contract * breach of promise * breach of the peace * *

Verb

(es)

To make a breach in.

They breached the outer wall, but not the main one.

To violate or break.

* 2000 , Mobile Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast, Inc. v. United States, Justice Stevens.

"I therefore agree with the Court that the Government did breach its contract with petitioners in failing to approve, within 30 days of its receipt, the plan of exploration petitioners submitted."

(transitive, nautical, of the sea) To break into a ship or into a coastal defence.

(of a whale) To leap clear out of the water.