breast

A common misconception is that women have breasts so that they can feed babies by producing milk. However, the truth is that the mammary glands that secrete the milk in the breasts makes up a pretty small percentage of the overall breast tissue. Most of the average human female breast is actually adipose tissue (fat) and connective tissue. Women with small breasts can nurse a baby just as well as women with large breasts...

The real evolutionary purpose of women having breasts is to attract the male of the species.

Anatomically, the breasts sit over the pectoralis major muscle and usually extend from the level of the 2nd rib to the level of the 6th rib anteriorly. The superior lateral quadrant of the breast extends diagonally upwards in an 'axillary tail'. A thin layer of mammary tissue extends from the clavicle above to the seventh or eight ribs below and from the midline to the edge of the latissimus dorsi posteriorly.

Important parts of the breasts: mammary glands, the axillary tail (tumours most likely to occur here), the lobules, Cooper's ligaments, the areola and the nipple.

Breast (?), n. [OE. brest, breost, As. breost; akin to Icel. brjst, Sw. brost, Dan. bryst, Goth. brusts, OS. briost, D. borst, G. brust.]

1.

The fore part of the body, between the neck and the belly; the chest; as, the breast of a man or of a horse.

2.

Either one of the protuberant glands, situated on the front of the chest or thorax in the female of man and of some other mammalia, in which milk is secreted for the nourishment of the young; a mammma; a teat.

My brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother. Cant. viii. 1.

3.

Anything resembling the human breast, or bosom; the front or forward part of anything; as, a chimney breast; a plow breast; the breast of a hill.

Mountains on whose barren breast The laboring clouds do often rest. Milton.

4. Mining (a)

The face of a coal working.

The front of a furnace.

5.

The seat of consciousness; the repository of thought and self-consciousness, or of secrets; the seat of the affections and passions; the heart.

He has a loyal breast. Shak.

6.

The power of singing; a musical voice; -- so called, probably, from the connection of the voice with the lungs, which lie within the breast.

By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. Shak.

Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work. -- Breast pang. See Angina pectoris, under Angina. -- To make a clean breast, to disclose the secrets which weigh upon one; to make full confession.

© Webster 1913.

Breast, v. t. [imp. & p. p.Breasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Breasted.]

To meet, with the breast; to struggle with or oppose manfully; as, to breast the storm or waves.

The court breasted the popular current by sustaining the demurrer. Wirt.

To breast up a hedge, to cut the face of it on one side so as to lay bare the principal upright stems of the plants.

© Webster 1913.

Brest, Breast (?), n. Arch.

A torus.

© Webster 1913.