breach

1 a failure to uphold the requirements of law, duty, or obligation the president's deliberate misstatements were widely seen as a breach of the public trust Synonyms contravention, infraction, infringement, transgression, trespass, violation Related Words misconduct, misdemeanor, misfeasance, misprision, offense (or offence), sin, wrong; disregard, forgetting, ignoring, nonobservance, overlooking; delinquency, dereliction, neglect; encroachment, intrusion, invasion Near Antonyms respecting, upholding Antonyms noninfringement, nonviolation, observance

2 a breaking of a moral or legal code cheating on the exam was a serious breach of the military academy's honor code Synonyms offense, crime, debt, error, lawbreaking, malefaction, misdeed, misdoing, sin, transgression, trespass, violation, wrongdoingRelated Words bias crime, hate crime; felony, misconduct, misdemeanor, misfeasance; fault, foible, peccadillo; break, infringement; immorality, iniquitousness, iniquity, sinfulness, vice, wickedness; corruption, debauchery, depravity, licentiousness; abuse, criminality, illegality, lawlessness, unlawfulness; descent, downfall, fallNear Antonyms blamelessness, faultlessness, guiltlessness, impeccability, innocence, irreproachability; goodness, morality, righteousness, virtue, virtuousnessAntonyms noncrime

3 an open space in a barrier (as a wall or hedge) the cat got out of the yard through a breach in the hedge Synonyms gap, break, discontinuity, gulf, hiatus, hole, interstice, interval, opening, rent, rift, separation, voidRelated Words chink, cleft, crack, cranny, crevice, fissure; notch, slit, slot, split; interspace, pore; abyss, aperture, cavity, chasm, gape, orifice; fracture, rupture, severance, sundering

to fail to keep a builder being sued by a homeowner for breaching a contract Synonyms violate, break, contravene, fracture, infringe, offend, traduce, transgressRelated Words disobey, rebel; blow off, brush (off), disregard, flout, ignore, neglect, overlook, overpass, pass over, slight, tune out, wink (at); dismiss, pooh-pooh (also pooh), scorn, shrug off; defy, resist, withstandNear Antonyms defer (to), serve, submit (to), surrender (to), yield (to); attend, hear, heed, listen (to), mark, note, notice, regard, watchAntonyms comply (with), conform (to), follow, mind, obey, observe