Definition of "breechen"

breechen

noun
plural breechens
1. (historical) A rope used to limit the recoil of a cannon on a ship
  Quotations
  In order to prevent any accidents which might happen, by the iron pin of the carriage giving way, from so sudden a shock, a breechen is made fast, from the sliding carriage, to the head of the boat, and properly secured: the gun being fired, the elasticity of the breechen permits her to recoil about two inches, which certainly is a much less strain to the boat, and a safer method of using the gun; for, allowing the breechen to break, there is then the same principle of the iron pin to be depended upon, as at present.
  1793, Transactions of the Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce‎, volume XI, pages 189–90
  The gun is discharged by means of a lock screwed on to the side of a vent-patch near the touch-hole, and its recoil is limited by a stout piece of rope called a breechen, which is rove through a ring at the breech, the ends being secured to bolts on each side of the port-hole.
  1839, The London Saturday Journal, No. XVIII, 4 May, 1839, London: William Smith, p. 274
  Mounted on lumbering wooden carriages they were hampered with cumbersome harness of breechen and strong side-tackles for running them out. Guns and carriages, together with the long rammers and shorter lintstocks lodged in loops overhead—all these, as customary, were painted black; and the heavy hempen breechens, tarred to the same tint, wore the like livery of the undertakers.
  1924, Herman Melville, chapter 20, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.
2. The part of the harness that fits over the horse's rump and holds the load back or permits the horse to back it up
  Quotations
  Remember, when a horse is on its side the kicking-strap is useless, and the breechen nearly so, to prevent the swing of its hind legs; your aim is to get it away from the steps or wheel-plate of the trap, which, in its struggles, may cut its legs fearfully.
  1884, Saddlers, Harness Makers, and Carriage Builders' Gazette, London: John Kemp, 1 November, 1884, Vol. XIV, pp. 155-6
  The breechen kept pressure back off the horse's hind quarters when they braked — the horses were very aware of this and paid close attention to its functioning.
  2014, Alice Taylor, Do You Remember?‎, O'Brien Press