Definition of "broach"

broach¹

/bɹəʊtʃ/

noun
plural broaches
1. A series of chisel points mounted on one piece of steel. For example, the toothed stone chisel shown here.
2. (masonry) A broad chisel for stone-cutting.
3. Alternative spelling of brooch
  Quotations
  Mr. S. had a large straw hat, and striped jacket and trousers, and his shirt fastened at the throat by a broach with Carry's hair, for he was always quite above wearing a neckcloth.
  1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 123
  She pinned a broach on her jacket.When Viv saw it, she laughed. “Is that the best you can do? A flower broach?”
  2012, Cara C. Putman, A Promise Born
4. A spit for cooking food.
  Quotations
  He turned a broach that had worn a crown.
  1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret
5. An awl; a bodkin; also, a wooden rod or pin, sharpened at each end, used by thatchers.
  Quotations
  It [the straw] is laid on to a considerable thickness and firmly secured by ropes or twisted straw, and pinned down by sharpened sticks called 'broaches'
  1840, “Cottages - Thatching”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
6. (architecture, UK, dialect) A spire rising from a tower.
7. A spit-like start on the head of a young stag.
8. The stick from which candle wicks are suspended for dipping.
9. The pin in a lock which enters the barrel of the key.
verb
third-person singular simple present broaches, present participle broaching, simple past and past participle broached
1. (transitive) To make a hole in, especially a cask of liquor, and put in a tap in order to draw the liquid.
  Quotations
  How often has the broached barrel proved not to be for joy and heart effusion, but for duel and head-breakage.
  1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, (please specify the book or page number)
2. (transitive) To open, to make an opening into; to pierce.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To begin discussion about (something).
  Quotations
  Yet he was much too much scared of broaching any man, let alone one in a peaked cap, to dare to ask.
  1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 4, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […]
  I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my love to Lys; but she will not listen.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
  THE POCKET ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF BRITISH STEAM LOCOMOTIVES. By O. S. Nock. Blandford Press. 18s.Mr. Nock, he remarks in his preface, was "incredulous" when the idea of this book of 192 colour gravure illustrations of a representative collection of British steam locomotives from Locomotion to BR's Evening Star was broached to him.
  1964 December, “New Books”, in Modern Railways, page 429

broach²

/bɹəʊtʃ/

verb
third-person singular simple present broaches, present participle broaching, simple past and past participle broached
1. (intransitive) To be turned sideways to oncoming waves, especially large or breaking waves.
2. (transitive) To cause to turn sideways to oncoming waves, especially large or breaking waves (usually followed by to; also figurative).
  Quotations
  Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling ... for death hath broached him to.
  18th C, Thomas Dibdin, Tom Bowling
3. (nautical, intransitive, of a submerged submarine, torpedo, or similar) To break the surface of the water.

Definition of "broach"

broach1

noun

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verb

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broach2

verb

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broach¹

broach²