Art Garfunkel: Solo musical career: His second album, Breakaway (1975), did even better, going platinum. In addition to the title song, which rose to number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the album featured “I Only Have Eyes for You,” a much-recorded composition by Al Dubin and Harry Warren that had been…

Kelly Clarkson: Her second full-length album, Breakaway (2004), which moved beyond Clarkson’s initial pop sound into a rock vein, sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and featured the hit singles “Because of You,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” and “Since U Been Gone.” Breakaway won a Grammy Award for best pop…

dengue, acute infectious mosquito-borne fever that is temporarily incapacitating but rarely fatal. Besides fever, the disease is characterized by an extreme pain in and stiffness of the joints (hence the name “breakbone fever”). Complication of dengue fever can give rise to a more severe form,

break dancing, energetic form of dance, fashioned and popularized by African Americans and Latinos, that includes stylized footwork and athletic moves such as back spins or head spins. Break dancing originated in New York City during the late 1960s and early ’70s, incorporating moves from a variety

Sara Paretsky: Senate candidate in Breakdown (2012). Her pursuit of a missing software engineer leads to revelations about the nuclear arms race during World War II in Critical Mass (2013). Brush Back (2015) saw Warshawski digging into a decades-old murder case at the behest of a high-school boyfriend. Later books…

Tom Petty: …States, but the single “Breakdown” was a smash in Britain, and, when it was re-released in the U.S., the song made the Top 40 in 1978. Damn the Torpedoes (1979), featuring the hits “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refugee,” shot to number two, and, though the group’s success…

semiconductor device: Zener diode: ) This voltage regulator is a p-n junction diode that has a precisely tailored impurity distribution to provide a well-defined breakdown voltage. It can be designed to have a breakdown voltage over a wide range from 0.1 volt to thousands of volts. The Zener…

semiconductor device: The p-n junction: …reverse critical voltage, called the breakdown voltage, can vary from less than one volt to many thousands of volts, depending on the impurity concentration of the junction and other device parameters.

wave: Wind waves and swell: …water, shortly before they become breakers.

Bruce Beresford: …came with his widely acclaimed Breaker Morant (1980), about the court-martial of Australian soldiers during the Boer War. The movie helped establish the Australian film industry and earned him an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. It also led to an invitation to direct the Hollywood film Tender Mercies…

ignition system: …are produced by means of breaker points controlled by a revolving distributor cam. When the points are in contact they complete an electrical circuit through the primary winding of the ignition coil. When the points are separated by the cam, the primary circuit is broken, which creates a high-voltage surge…

Western architecture: United States: …aristocracy of America: for example, The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1892–95 in an opulent neo-Renaissance style for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. In 1859–62 Henry Hobson Richardson trained at the École, and on his return to the United States he specialized in a rock-faced Romanesque style probably inspired by the…

breakfast cereal: …with milk or cream for breakfast in the United States and elsewhere, often sweetened with sugar, syrup, or fruit.

Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood: …of Capote’s most popular works, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is a novella about Holly Golightly, a young fey café society girl; it was first published in Esquire magazine in 1958 and then as a book, with several other stories.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, American romantic comedy film, released in 1961, that was based on the novella by Truman Capote and featured the critically acclaimed performance of Audrey Hepburn as the free-spirited Holly Golightly. George Peppard plays Paul (“Fred”) Varjak, a straitlaced writer who falls

burrito: …one variant is the “breakfast burrito,” which typically contains enough food for a couple of meals, with eggs, beans, cheese, chile, avocados, tomatoes, salsa, potatoes, bacon, chorizo sausage, or many such components. A lunch or dinner burrito typically comprises a similarly wide range of ingredients, a single helping often…

breakfast cereal, grain food, usually precooked or ready-to-eat, that is customarily eaten with milk or cream for breakfast in the United States and elsewhere, often sweetened with sugar, syrup, or fruit. Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are of four basic types: flaked, made from corn, wheat, or rice

The Breakfast Club, American coming-of-age comedy-drama film, released in 1985, that was written and directed by John Hughes. The movie centers on five high-school students, seemingly with nothing in common, who are forced to spend an all-day detention together in their school library. The

Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions: Breakfast of Champions; or, Goodbye Blue Monday! (1973; film 1999)—about a Midwestern businessman who becomes obsessed with Trout’s books—is a commentary on writing, fame, and American social values, interspersed with drawings by Vonnegut. Though reviews were mixed, it quickly became a best seller. Vonnegut’s next…

Neil Jordan: Other films: …Good Thief (2002) and directed Breakfast on Pluto (2005), another adaptation of a McCabe novel, about a transgender woman (Cillian Murphy) who leaves her small Irish town for London. Two years later he directed The Brave One, in which a woman (Jodie Foster) becomes a vigilante after a vicious attack.

Pieter Claesz: …Burning Candle (1627) and the Breakfast Still Life (1647) show a subtle variation of closely related monochrome colors, which in his later, more Baroque work became stronger. Claesz’s increasingly decorative work after 1640 includes lavish still-life displays. His son, Nicolaes Berchem, was a famous landscape painter.

Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Breakfast-Table” series of essays.

break dancing, energetic form of dance, fashioned and popularized by African Americans and Latinos, that includes stylized footwork and athletic moves such as back spins or head spins. Break dancing originated in New York City during the late 1960s and early ’70s, incorporating moves from a variety

Dennis Quaid: Stardom: Breaking Away, The Right Stuff, and Great Balls of Fire!: His breakthrough film, Breaking Away, was released in 1979. The coming-of-age comedy follows a group of aimless, working-class townies in Bloomington, Indiana, who battle arrogant Indiana University students in the Little 500 bicycling race. Quaid’s convincing performance as Mike, the angriest of the townies, led to many opportunities…

Kristin Hunter Lattany: …into campus race relations in Breaking Away (2003), which centres on a black professor who is drawn into a harassment lawsuit initiated by a group of students.

Breaking Bad, American crime drama television series created by writer and producer Vince Gilligan. It aired 2008–13 on the American Movie Classics (AMC) cable network. The title is a colloquial expression from the South, meaning “to raise hell.” The show was a popular and critical success and a

baseball: The pitching repertoire: … is a swerving pitch that breaks away from the straight line, to the left (the catcher’s right) if thrown by a right-handed pitcher, to the right if by a left-hander. Some pitchers also employ a curving ball that breaks in the opposite way from the regulation curve, a pitch known…

Albert Wendt: Wendt’s later novels included Breaking Connections (2015). The play The Songmaker’s Chair (2004) focuses on Polynesian family relations in New Zealand.

Stephenie Meyer: Twilight and other works: …novel in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn (2008; film part 1, 2011, and part 2, 2012). Its publication was commemorated by bookstores across the United States with vampire-themed parties held before the title went on sale at midnight.

Robert Pattinson: Twilight and stardom: Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010), Breaking Dawn—Part 1 (2011), and Breaking Dawn—Part 2 (2012). The movies became a major pop culture sensation, and Pattinson’s profile rose even further as his romantic relationship with his costar in the films, Kristen Stewart, was constantly publicized in the media. He received more notice…

papermaking: Strength and durability: …inherent paper strength is the breaking length—that is, the length of a paper strip in metres that would be just self-supporting. This value varies from about 500 metres for extremely soft, weak tissue to about 8,000 metres for strong kraft bag paper, and to about 14,000 metres for sheets of…

Friedrich von Spielhagen: (1869; Hammer and Anvil), and Sturmflut, 3 vol. (1877; The Breaking of the Storm). The last is a powerful romance, using a tempest that flooded the Baltic coast in 1872 as a symbol for the economic storm that burst on Berlin that same year.

baseball: The pitching repertoire: … is a swerving pitch that breaks away from the straight line, to the left (the catcher’s right) if thrown by a right-handed pitcher, to the right if by a left-hander. Some pitchers also employ a curving ball that breaks in the opposite way from the regulation curve, a pitch known…

Michael Curtiz: Last films of Michael Curtiz: … great Bix Beiderbecke, and with The Breaking Point Curtiz fashioned what some critics believe to be the best adaptation of any novel by Ernest Hemingway, in this case a more faithful version of To Have and Have Not than Howard Hawks’s 1944 film. Curtiz directed three films in 1951: Force…

Daniel C. Dennett: His 2006 volume Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon advanced evolutionary explanations for the development of religious thought. He considered religious inclinations to be largely a by-product of instinct-driven social phenomena. He maintained, for example, that the ability to discern intent in fellow humans led people…

Few topics are off limits these days. And yet the taboo against talking about money seems to be alive and thriving in many relationships. Although some might view the money taboo as more a matter of privacy (or good manners), the reality is that most couples can’t afford to not talk about

Lars von Trier: Von Trier’s next film was Breaking the Waves (1996), a grim tale about a pious Scottish woman subjected to brutality that was anchored by a bravura Oscar-nominated performance by Emily Watson. It embodies much of the spirit of Dogme 95, though it was not technically certified as such. In the…

Neil Sedaka: Return to singing: In 1975 Sedaka rereleased “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” which made music history as the only single to have two different versions by the same artist reach number one on the Billboard charts. His original version topped the charts in 1962, and in 1976 his ballad rendition topped…

naval warfare: The age of fighting sail: “Breaking the line” of the enemy fleet was one aim, because this broke the enemy’s tactical cohesion and made it possible to overwhelm individual ships by bringing greatly superior force to bear on each of them in turn. Popular aims were raking (firing a broadside…

In financial markets, a technical breakout takes place when the price of an asset—a stock, commodity, or cryptocurrency, for example—moves decisively above a resistance level or below a support level. These breakouts are often accompanied by a surge in trading volume and may signal a continuation

Adrian IV was the only Englishman to occupy the papal throne (1154–59). He became a canon regular of St. Ruf near Avignon, France, and in about 1150 Pope Eugenius III appointed him cardinal bishop of Albano, Italy. Eugenius sent him in 1152 as legate to Scandinavia, where his mission to reorganize

Meister Eckhart: Breakthrough: To Meister Eckhart, identity with God is still not enough; to abandon all things without abandoning God is still not abandoning anything. Man must live “without why.” He must seek nothing, not even God. Such a thought leads man into the desert, anterior to…

extraterrestrial intelligence: Radio searches: Beginning in 2016, the Breakthrough Listen project began a 10-year survey of the one million closest stars, the nearest 100 galaxies, the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the galactic centre using the Parkes telescope and the 100-metre (328-foot) telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green…

breakwater, artificial offshore structure protecting a harbour, anchorage, or marina basin from water waves. Breakwaters intercept longshore currents and tend to prevent beach erosion. Over the long term, however, the processes of erosion and sedimentation cannot be effectively overcome by

Athens 1896 Olympic Games: The race, conceived by Frenchman Michel Bréal, followed the legendary route of Pheidippides, a trained runner who was believed to have been sent from the plain of Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of an invading Persian army in 490 bce. The race became the highlight of the Games…

bream, (Abramis brama), common European food and game fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, found in lakes and slow rivers. The bream lives in schools and eats worms, mollusks, and other small animals. It is deep bodied, with flat sides and a small head, and is silvery with a bluish or brown back.

Julian Bream was an internationally celebrated English guitarist and lutenist who inspired new interest in the music of the Renaissance lute. After studying with his father and performing locally from age 14, Bream attended the Royal College of Music while pursuing private extracurricular study of

Julian Bream was an internationally celebrated English guitarist and lutenist who inspired new interest in the music of the Renaissance lute. After studying with his father and performing locally from age 14, Bream attended the Royal College of Music while pursuing private extracurricular study of

mammary gland, milk-producing gland characteristic of all female mammals and present in a rudimentary and generally nonfunctional form in males. Mammary glands are regulated by the endocrine system and become functional in response to the hormonal changes associated with parturition. In the

breast cancer, disease characterized by the growth of malignant cells in the mammary glands. Breast cancer affects males and females, although women are about 100 times more likely to develop the disease than men. Most cancers in female breasts form shortly before, during, or after menopause;

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, international health campaign lasting the month of October that is intended to increase global awareness of breast cancer. In the United States the monthlong campaign is known as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The first organized effort to bring widespread

silicone breast implant, prosthesis made from a polymer gel contained within a flexible casing that is used for the reconstruction or augmentation of the female mammary tissue. The polymer gel is made up of a chain of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, which makes the substance highly stable and

silicone breast implant: Safety issues and regulation: … officially designated this condition as breast implant-associated ALCL (BIA-ALCL). Reports suggest that the risk of BIA-ALCL is higher with implants that have a textured rather than smooth surface.

silicone breast implant: Safety issues and regulation: … officially designated this condition as breast implant-associated ALCL (BIA-ALCL). Reports suggest that the risk of BIA-ALCL is higher with implants that have a textured rather than smooth surface.

lactation: Composition and properties of milk: Human breast milk is superior to modified cow’s milk formulas, which may lack essential and beneficial components and are not absorbed as easily or as quickly by the infant. Maternal breast milk provides vitamins, minerals, protein, and anti-infectious factors; antibodies that protect the infant’s gastrointestinal…

breast cancer: Diagnosis: …the patient during a regular breast self-examination. When a self-exam is performed on a monthly basis, a woman becomes familiar with her breasts and can readily detect an abnormal change, such as a lump, a swelling, dimpling, or a change in contour, warranting immediate clinical examination. However, a change that…

retaining wall, freestanding wall that either resists some weight on one side or prevents the erosion of an embankment. It may also be “battered”—that is, inclined toward the load it is bearing. There are a number of methods employed to resist the lateral force against such a wall. The most basic

energy conversion: Waterwheels: …a Scottish engineer, showed that breast wheels (i.e., those in which water enters at the 10- or two-o’clock position) were more efficient than overshot wheels and less vulnerable to flood damage. He used curved buckets and provided a close-fitting masonry wall to keep the water from flowing out sideways. In…

Philip Roth: Several minor works, including The Breast (1972), My Life As a Man (1974), and The Professor of Desire (1977), were followed by one of Roth’s most important novels, The Ghost Writer (1979), which introduced an aspiring young writer named Nathan Zuckerman, who is Roth’s alter ego. Two later novels,…

suckling, in mammals, the drawing of milk into the mouth from the nipple or teat of a mammary gland (i.e., breast or udder). In humans, suckling is also referred to as nursing or breastfeeding. Suckling is the method by which newborn mammals are nourished. Suckling may last only 10–12 days, as in

sternum, in the anatomy of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates), elongated bone in the centre of the chest that articulates with and provides support for the clavicles (collarbones) of the shoulder girdle and for the ribs. Its origin in evolution is unclear. A sternum appears in certain salamanders;

papermaking: Formation of paper sheet by machines: …headbox, more commonly called a flowbox or breastbox, consisted of a rectangular wooden vat that extended across the full width of the machine behind the Fourdrinier breast roll. The box was provided with baffles to mix and distribute the stock. A flat metal plate extending across the machine (knife slice)…

James Henry Breasted was an American Egyptologist, archaeologist, and historian who promoted research on ancient Egypt and the ancient civilizations of western Asia. After graduate studies at Yale and Berlin, Breasted began teaching Egyptology at the University of Chicago in 1894. He compiled a

tunnels and underground excavations: Hand-mined tunnels: Examples are forepoling and breasting techniques as developed for the hazardous case of running (unstable) ground. Figure 1 shows the essentials of the process: heading advanced under a roof of forepole planks that are driven ahead at the crown (and at the sides in severe cases) plus continuous planking…

energy conversion: Waterwheels: …a Scottish engineer, showed that breast wheels (i.e., those in which water enters at the 10- or two-o’clock position) were more efficient than overshot wheels and less vulnerable to flood damage. He used curved buckets and provided a close-fitting masonry wall to keep the water from flowing out sideways. In…

breaststroke, swimming stroke performed lying face down in the water in which swimmers use a wide sweeping arm movement and a frog kick to propel themselves forward. The breaststroke is believed to be the oldest stroke and is commonly used in lifesaving and recreational swimming as well as in

Australian literature: Literature in the 21st century: …novels Dirt Music (2001) and Breath (2009) to his oeuvre.

breath analyzer, device used to determine the amount of alcohol in the system of persons suspected of being intoxicated or to detect the presence of infection or disease. In the case of alcohol detection, a precise amount of a person’s exhaled breath is passed through a solution of potassium

Edwidge Danticat: …Haitian women, was published as Breath, Eyes, Memory in 1994. The following year Krik? Krak!, a collection of short stories, was published. The collection, which took its title from a call-and-response phrase common in Haitian storytelling, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her second novel, The Farming of…

breath analyzer, device used to determine the amount of alcohol in the system of persons suspected of being intoxicated or to detect the presence of infection or disease. In the case of alcohol detection, a precise amount of a person’s exhaled breath is passed through a solution of potassium

Andrew Garfield: Film roles from the late 2010s: …also had starring parts in Breathe (2017), a biopic of Robin Cavendish, a newlywed who is paralyzed after a severe case of polio, and in Under the Silver Lake (2018), an off-the-wall neo-noir.

Faith Hill: Hill’s fourth album, Breathe, appeared in 1999. It debuted at the number one spot on the Billboard country album chart and on the Billboard 200 chart, which measured all music genres. In 2000 Hill sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXIV, and she later performed at the…

breathing, the action of moving air or water across the surface of a respiratory structure, such as a gill or lung, to facilitate respiration (the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the environment). See

Anne Tyler: That year Tyler also published Breathing Lessons, which explores a couple’s relationship as they drive to a funeral; it won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989.

animal disease: General inspection: The respiratory movements of an animal are important diagnostic criteria; breathing is rapid in young animals, in small animals, and in animals whose body temperature is higher than normal. Specific respiratory movements are characteristic of certain diseases—e.g., certain movements in horses with heaves (emphysema) or the…

Jean-Luc Godard: Breathless and filmmaking style and themes: …À bout de souffle (1960; Breathless), which was produced by François Truffaut, his colleague on the journal Cahiers du cinéma, won the Jean Vigo Prize. It inaugurated a long series of features, all celebrated for the often drastic nonchalance of Godard’s improvisatory filmmaking procedures. Breathless was shot without a script;…

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer: …Balls of Fire,” and “Breathless,” all Top Ten hits in 1957 and 1958. His rhythmically assured and versatile “pumping” piano style (the left hand maintaining a driving boogie pattern while the right hand added flashy ornamentation) was influenced by church music and country musicians such as Moon Mullican, who…

cardiovascular disease: Ventricular dysfunction in heart failure: The symptoms may vary from shortness of breath on very little exertion to a medical emergency in which the patients feel as though they are suffocating. Congestive symptoms may also result in enlargement of the liver and spleen and loss of fluid into the abdominal cavity (ascites) or the pleural…

Taoism: Communal ceremonies: …the Union of Breaths (heqi), a communal sexual ritual said to have been celebrated at each new moon. Later Buddhist sources described this as a riotous orgy of outrageous and disgusting license. Several cryptic manuals of instruction for the priest in charge of these proceedings are preserved in the…

vocal fry, in phonetics, a speech sound or quality used in some languages, produced by vibrating vocal cords that are less tense than in normal speech, which produces local turbulence in the airstream resulting in a compromise between full voice and whisper. English speakers produce a vocal fry

E.J. Pratt: In Brébeuf and His Brethren (1940), Pratt reached the heights of his poetic career. In 12 books of blank verse, this chronicle records the martyrdom of Jesuit missionaries by the Iroquois Indians. Pratt’s publications of the World War II period reflect topical themes. These include: Dunkirk…

St. Jean de Brébeuf ; canonized 1930; feast day October 19) was a Roman Catholic missionary to New France and martyr who became one of the patron saints of Canada. Brébeuf entered the Society of Jesus in 1617, was ordained a priest in 1623, and arrived in New France (the French colonies of North

St. Jean de Brébeuf ; canonized 1930; feast day October 19) was a Roman Catholic missionary to New France and martyr who became one of the patron saints of Canada. Brébeuf entered the Society of Jesus in 1617, was ordained a priest in 1623, and arrived in New France (the French colonies of North

breccia, lithified sedimentary rock consisting of angular or subangular fragments larger than 2 millimetres (0.08 inch). It differs from a conglomerate, which consists of rounded clasts. A brief treatment of breccias follows. For full treatment, see sedimentary rock: Conglomerates and breccias.

Brechin, small royal burgh (town), council area and historic county of Angus, Scotland, situated on the River South Esk in the fertile vale of Strathmore. One of Scotland’s three round towers (10th-century) adjoins the 12th-century cathedral. In 1296 Scotland was ceded temporarily to the English at

Brechin: Brechin Castle subsequently made a gallant stand against the English forces of Edward I in 1303. Brechin became a royal burgh in 1641. Modern industries include engineering, distilling, and food processing. Brechin’s historic Caledonian Railway attracts tourists. Pop. (2001) 7,290; (2011) 7,480.

Sark: …smaller, privately owned island of Brecqhou (Brechou) is separated from Great Sark by the narrow Le Gouliot Channel. Sark is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The island is essentially a plateau rising to 375 feet (114 metres), with a scenic coast encircled by precipitous cliffs. The island has three…

Arnold Brecht was an exiled German public servant, who became a prominent political scientist and made major contributions in the area of clarifying scientific theory. After studying at several universities, Brecht received a law degree from the University of Leipzig in 1906 and, after in-service

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes. Until 1924 Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied medicine

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes. Until 1924 Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied medicine

Breckenridge, city, seat (1862) of Summit county, central Colorado, U.S. Situated at an elevation of 9,600 feet (2,926 metres), Breckenridge was the scene of one of the earliest gold strikes in Colorado, in 1859; the town grew around the goldfields, and within a decade it contained several fine

Brecker, Michael Leonard was an American tenor saxophonist, whose stark, jagged, yet driving jazz style influenced many tenor saxophonists in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Brecker studied clarinet and alto saxophone as a boy and turned to tenor saxophone once he reached high school. He

Blood, Sweat & Tears: …1943, Troy, New York), and Randy Brecker (b. November 27, 1945, Philadelphia).

John Breckinridge was a Kentucky politician who sponsored Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions, which, like James Madison’s Virginia Resolutions, advocated a states’ rights view of the Union. Breckinridge grew up on the Virginia frontier but nonetheless managed to attend William and Mary College

John C. Breckinridge was the 14th vice president of the United States (1857–61), an unsuccessful presidential candidate of Southern Democrats (November 1860), and a Confederate officer during the American Civil War (1861–65). Descended from an old Kentucky family distinguished in law and politics,

John C. Breckinridge was the 14th vice president of the United States (1857–61), an unsuccessful presidential candidate of Southern Democrats (November 1860), and a Confederate officer during the American Civil War (1861–65). Descended from an old Kentucky family distinguished in law and politics,

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge was an American social reformer whose efforts focused on child welfare, health issues, and women’s rights. She was educated in Lexington, Kentucky, and at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, and studied intermittently during 1890–94 at the State College

Mary Breckinridge was an American nurse-midwife whose establishment of neonatal and childhood medical care systems in the United States dramatically reduced mortality rates of mothers and infants. Breckinridge grew up in Washington, D.C., where her father was an Arkansas congressman, and in St.

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge was an American welfare worker who led the social-work education movement in the United States. Breckinridge graduated from Wellesley College in 1888. After a time as a schoolteacher in Washington, D.C., she studied law in her father’s office, and in 1895 she became

Breckland, district, administrative and historic county of Norfolk, England. It occupies much of west-central and south-central Norfolk. With poor sandy soils overlying chalk or clay, landscape features include heathland vegetation, small lakes, or meres, whose water level is variable, and