abreast

• POS: Adjective, Adverb
• HYPHEN: a=breast

CIDE DICTIONARY

abreast, adv. [Pref. a- + breast.].

•  Side by side, with breasts in a line; as, “Two men could hardly walk abreast.”  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
•  Side by side; also, opposite; over against; on a line with the vessel's beam; -- with of.  [1913 Webster]
•  Up to a certain level or line; equally advanced; as, to keep abreast of [or with] the present state of science.  [1913 Webster]
•  At the same time; simultaneously.  [1913 Webster]

  "Abreast therewith began a convocation."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

abreast, adv.
1 side by side and facing the same way.
2 a (often foll. by with) up to date. b (foll. by of) well-informed (abreast of all the changes).

Etymology

ME f. A(2) + BREAST

THESAURUS

abreast

abeam, acquainted, along by, alongside, au courant, au fait, beside, by, coextensively, collaterally, contemporary, conversant, equidistantly, in parallel, informed, nondivergently, parallelly, parallelwise, red-hot, side-by-side, up, up-to-date, up-to-the-minute, versed

ROGET THESAURUS

abreast

Laterality

N laterality, side, flank, quarter, lee, hand, cheek, jowl, jole, wing, profile, temple, parietes, loin, haunch, hip, beam, gable, gable end, broadside, lee side, points of the compass, East, Orient, Levant, West, orientation, lateral, sidelong, collateral, parietal, flanking, skirting, flanked, sideling, many sided, multilateral, bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral, Eastern, orient, oriental, Levantine, Western, occidental, Hesperian, sideways, sidelong, broadside on, on one side, abreast, alongside, beside, aside, by the side of, side by side, cheek by jowl, to windward, to leeward, laterally, right and left, on her beam ends, his cheek the may of days outworn.