breaststroke
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of breaststroke
Explanation
The breaststroke is a swimming style that doesn't require you to turn your head or upper body. When you swim the breaststroke, your arms and legs make frog-like movements through the water. Many recreational swimmers use the breaststroke, which keeps you on your chest, popping your head straight up to take a breath between strokes. It's also the slowest competitive swimming stroke, but it still requires powerfully strong shoulders and arms. The frog kick part of the breaststroke propels you forward under water, and the arm movement happens as you come up for air.
Vocabulary lists containing breaststroke
Sisters in the Wind
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Earthquake Terror
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And he delivered sensationally, streaking away from the field in the backstroke and breaststroke legs before closing it out in the freestyle.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
But Archie Goodburn, who has terminal brain cancer, could provide one of the moments of the Games if he lands a podium finish in the 50m breaststroke.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The complaint was dismissed and the teenager went on to win gold in the 200-meter breaststroke.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Marchand, who counted the 200m breaststroke among his four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, was third at the 100m mark.
From Barron's ● Jan. 18, 2026
After that, Jonathan stayed with the breaststroke, changing to a dog paddle when he got tired.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
He ping-ponged to breaststrokes, and then to floating.
From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2014
He was trying for multiple gold medals at the 2004 Games after setting world records in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the trials and wound up with a silver and a bronze.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2012
It is the map of an obstinate man with 737 doubles who still flings himself flat and breaststrokes like a gopher into second base.
From Time Magazine Archive
I know how to float how to dog paddle how to hold my breath between breaststrokes.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
Descending the rickety ladder, I pushed off into the water and breaststroked to the deepest part, at the center, to avoid entanglement with hidden weeds and roots.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 20, 2020
He held his breath and breaststroked over to the rocky bench.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
Flossie breaststroked quietly around for a minute before swimming to the poolside nearest Shorty, where she rested, arms folded on the tile border, chin resting on her arms.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
“At least there’s no wind,” McArthur cheerfully noted, as we started breaststroking toward the buoy.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 20, 2020
Some members descended into the water in bathing suits and pointy witch hats, breaststroking around like black crows that had taken a turn for the aquatic.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 20, 2020
Here, I swim through a canyon filled with green water of such violent luminosity that it's like breaststroking through a radioactive Midori cocktail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2013
He is a son of nearby Belle Harbor and speaks without bravado of plunging into the chest-high 50-degree waters and breaststroking past live wires to save a young mother and her children.
From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2012
She laughed and swam away on her back for a few feet, then circled around, breaststroking quietly to him.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
