breast heightn.adv.adj.

1653 J. Mayer Comm. Bk. Numbers (xi. 31) 68 in Comm. Old Test. They [sc. quail] were round about the camp.., and two cubits high from the earth. This was breast height, saith Solom. Jarchi, so that they needed not to stoop down to take them up, or reach up their hands to catch them.

?1764 J. Randall Constr. & Use Seed-furrow Plough 92 Then he may..raise a perpendicular of any length, and set off four feet (the breast-height of any horse).

1812 E. Sang Nicol's Planter's Kal. 566 (note) The same [ash] tree, measured in March 1812, was found to be, at breast height, 21 feet 6 inches in circumference.

1932 Forestry 6 53 The common breast-height form-factor, which represents the ratio between the volume of the tree and that of a cylinder with the same height and the same girth or diameter as that of the tree at breast height.

2002 D. G. Stott tr. J. Braun Music in Anc. Israel/Palestine iv. iv. 175 The actual lyre itself was about 40-50 cm. tall and had four strings; the musician held it at breast height with his left hand while his right hand..plucked the strings.

2015 P. W. West Tree & Forest Measurem. (ed. 3) iii. 12 Loose litter and debris at the base of the tree should be brushed aside before making the measurement of breast height.

1738 tr. J. Spon in Bayle's Hist. & Crit. Dict. (ed. 2) V. 26/2 (note) It [sc. an aqueduct] serves as a bridge to those who go on foot, though it be hardly above three foot broad, and has no breast-height.

1790 J. Trapp tr. J. Lavallée Negro II. 41 As softly as possible, I jump upon the breast height of a parlour-window.

1864 in War of Rebellion (U.S. War Dept.) (1902) 1st Ser. XXXIII. xlv. 299 The breast-height was struck by solid shot on every side, fragments of shells sought almost every interior angle of the work.

1688 E. Bohun Geogr. Dict. sig. Kk4/2 It has six Bastions made in the form of a Star, and walled up Breast height, above the Level within, nor is the Dike broad or deep.

1798 tr. J.-H. Castéra Hist. Reigns Peter III & Catharine II I. iv. 6 Two large quays, with a parapet breast height, built of granite, project before these buildings.

1929 W. H. Meyer Yields of Second-growth Spruce & Fir in Northeast Tech. Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., No. 142 5 To this average value, called the breastheight age, a period of 15 years was added to allow for growth from origin of stand to breastheight.

1957 Jrnl. Wildlife Managem. 21 77/2 The reproduction was predominantly sugar maple and, although somewhat taller than in other study areas, none was breast height.

1999 T. D. Droessler in C. R. Bamsey Stand Density Managem. 39 The best possible situation would be to have remeasurement data from permanent plots starting when the trees were breast height through to rotation age.