Brig-fourre, m. (military), brigadier fourrier.
Brignolet, m. (popular), bread, “tommy.”
Briller (thieves’), to light.
[Brimade], f. (military), euphemism for bullying; practical and often cruel jokes perpetrated at the military school of Saint-Cyr at the expense of the newly joined, termed “melons” (“snookers” at the R. M. Academy), such as tossing one in a blanket, together with boots, spurs, and brushes, or trying him by a mock court-martial for some supposed offence. An illustration with a vengeance of such practical joking occurred some years ago at an English garrison town. Some young officers packed up a colleague’s traps, without leaving in the rooms a particle of property, nailed the boxes to the floor, and laid a he-goat in the bed. On the victim’s arrival they left him no time to give vent to his indignant feelings, for they cast him into a fisherman’s net and dragged him downstairs, with the result that the unfortunate officer barely escaped with his life.
Brimer, to indulge in [brimades] (which see).
Brinde, f. (popular), tall, lanky woman; landlord of a wine shop.
Brindezingue, m. (thieves’), tin case of very small diameter containing implements, such as a fine steel saw or a watch-spring, which they secrete in a peculiar manner. Says Delvau:—
Comment arrivent-ils à soustraire cet instrument de délivrance aux investigations les plus minutieuses des geôliers? C’est ce qu’il faut demander à M. le docteur Ambroise Tardieu qui a fait une étude spéciale des maladies de la gaîne naturelle de cet étui.
(Mountebanks’) Etre en ——, to be ruined, a bankrupt, “cracked up,” or “gone to smash.”
Brindezingues, m. pl. (popular), être dans les ——, to be intoxicated. From an old word brinde, toast.