a break or rupture in a fence or embankment. Impositions of lands are frequently owing to breaches in dikes or sea-banks. Dagenham breach is well known; it occurred in 1707, by a failure of the Thames wall during a very high tide. The force with which the water burst in upon the neighbouring level tore a channel of a hundred yards wide, and in some places twenty feet deep, by which a multitude of trees that had been buried for ages were laid bare.

in Fortification, is a gap made in any part of the works of a town or fortress by the cannon or mines of the besiegers, with a view to an assault upon the place. To render the attack more difficult, the besieged sow the breach with crow-feet, stop it up with chevaux de frise, or retreat by cutting traverses within. The besiegers sometimes protect themselves with gabions, earth-bags, and the like; but in our army the practice has always been for storming parties to advance to the breach without any such protection, and to trust for success to their own daring.