BREACH OF PROMISE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does breach of promise mean? 

• BREACH OF PROMISE (noun)
  The noun BREACH OF PROMISE has 1 sense:

1. failure to keep a promise (of marriage)

  Familiarity information: BREACH OF PROMISE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREACH OF PROMISE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Failure to keep a promise (of marriage)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("breach of promise" is a kind of...):

breach of contract (a breach of a legal duty; failure to do something that is required in a contract)

 Context examples 

I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were instituted.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I replied—There is no dishonour, no breach of promise, no desertion in the case. I am not under the slightest obligation to go to India, especially with strangers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My resolution of thanking you for your kindness to Lydia had certainly great effect. Too much, I am afraid; for what becomes of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise? for I ought not to have mentioned the subject.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)