breaches

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of breach.

   Repeated breaches of the ceasefire drew international condemnation.

   Engineers sealed the breaches in the levee before the next storm arrived.

   Note

   Two families of plural share this spelling: physical gaps and broken obligations. For an opening, English says breaches in something, as in breaches in the wall, the levee or the embankment. For a violation, it says breaches of something, as in breaches of the law, of a ceasefire or of trust. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb. Breaches of marks the noun, and breaches followed directly by an object marks the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of breach.

   The flood breaches the embankment whenever the water rises too fast.

   If a supplier breaches the agreement, the contract allows immediate termination.

   Note

   Here the -es ending agrees with a singular subject, and in most uses the object follows directly, with no preposition: the flood breaches the embankment, a supplier breaches the contract. Two intransitive uses stand apart. A dam that breaches gives way, and a whale that breaches leaps clear of the water. The informal legal sense usually appears in the passive (he was breached), so it seldom takes this form.

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