Word.ws English Dictionary

debreast

debreast verb: to remove the breasts from.

Verb

debreast (third-person singular simple present debreasts, present participle debreasting, simple past and past participle debreasted)

  1. (transitive) To remove the breasts from.
    • The order was given to debreast that young sweeper. The subordinates slashed the innocent sweeper's breasts.1978, Brajkishore Prasad, India Regained: A Dynastic Rule and the '77 Democratic Revolution, page 224
    • Although it is often said elsewhere that this debreasting was done so that in maturity Amazons might be able to draw bowstrings unimpeded across their chests, the passage I have quoted offers a different explanation[…]1991, Bruce Lincoln, Death, War, and Sacrifice, page 199

Examples of debreast in a sentence

  • Thus, in images of St Agatha's debreasting, artists often represent only the removal of a single breast, to the martyr's right, signalling a typological connection with Christ's wound[…]2002, Rita Copeland, David Lawton, Wendy Scase, New medieval literatures, volume 5, page 122:
  • “Charlie,” she yelled, sitting up and frantically looking down the front of her nightie, acting as though I'd debreasted her or something.2005, Phillip Gaustad, Carlocito, page 8:

Forms of debreast

third-person singular presentdebreasts
present participledebreasting
past participledebreasted
pastdebreasted

Origin of debreast

From de- + breast.

Questions about debreast

What does debreast mean?
Debreast means to remove the breasts from.
How do you use debreast in a sentence?
Thus, in images of St Agatha's debreasting, artists often represent only the removal of a single breast, to the martyr's right, signalling a typological connection with Christ's wound[…]
What part of speech is debreast?
Debreast is a verb.
What is the past tense of debreast?
The past tense of debreast is debreasted.

Words near debreast in the dictionary

  1. debrand
  2. debranded
  3. debranding
  4. debrands
  5. debranning
  6. debreast
  7. debreasted
  8. debreasting
  9. debreasts
  10. Debrecen
  11. debrecener

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: debreast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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