broach¹ / brōch/ • v. [tr.] 1. raise (a sensitive or difficult subject) for discussion: he broached the subject he had been avoiding all evening.2. pierce (a cask) to draw liquor.3. [intr.] (of a fish or sea mammal) rise through the water and break the surface: the salmon broach, then fall to slap the water.broach² Naut. • v. [intr.] (also broach to) (of a ship with the wind on the quarter) veer and pitch forward because of bad steering or a sea hitting the stern, causing it to present a side to the wind and sea, lose steerage, and possibly suffer serious damage.

broach.
1. To remove the marks of rough scraping from a stone face, thus finishing it as broached work.

2. To drill holes in stone in a quarry and then cut between them to free the blocks.

3. Spire, more particularly one on a tower without parapets, requiring extra masonry to effect the transition between the square tower and the octagonal base of the spire: these partial pyramidal forms are called broaches. Broach-spires were usually First Pointed, and occasionally Second Pointed.

4. A pointed ornamental structure, e.g. an obelisk.

5. Junction (broach-stop or chamfer) between a chamfered and squared edge by which the bevel merges into a right angle.

broach
A. †pointed rod or pin; roasting-spit XIV; church spire XVI; tapered boring-bit XVIII.

B. (f. the vb.) †perforation with a tap XV. — (O)F. broche spit (see BROOCH).
So broach vb. pierce XIV; give vent to XVI. — (O)F. brocher.