Meaning
A rallying call to attempt something difficult one more time, usually after an earlier effort has been beaten back. It is now commonly used humorously or dramatically of any repeated struggle, from retaking a sports field to facing a dreaded meeting, though it still carries a note of courage and camaraderie. Recognizably literary and often tongue-in-cheek for mundane retries. Breach here is a noun, a gap in fortifications, not the verb break - the image is charging into a broken wall. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean allusion).
Origin
From Henry V, Act 3 Scene 1, spoken by King Henry rallying his troops at the siege of Harfleur: 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; / Or close the wall up with our English dead.' The breach is the gap the English guns had blown in the town wall, and the speech closes with the cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' The Phrase Finder dates the play 1598 (Wikipedia says circa 1599) and glosses the phrase as an invitation to try again one more time. Laurence Olivier's 1944 film delivery is widely called the most celebrated; Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film and The Hollow Crown (2012) renewed the speech for later audiences, and it is now the stock jokey battle-cry of third attempts everywhere.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- into the breach once more
- once more into the breach
- once more unto the breach, dear friends
Usage Examples
- The proposal had been rejected twice already, but the team gathered on Monday and, once more unto the breach, pitched it a third time.
- She whispered 'once more unto the breach' and pushed open the door to the retirement party she had been dreading all week.
- After losing the first two sets, the captain rallied his squash team with a rousing once-more-unto-the-breach speech in the changing room.