The Sailor's Word-Book / An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.

by W. H. Smyth

BRASH. Small fragments of crushed ice, collected by wind or currents, near the shore; or such that the ship can easily force through.

BRASS. Impudent assurance.

BRASSARTS. Pieces between the elbow and the top of the shoulder in ancient armour.

BRASSER. A defensive bit of armour for the arm.

BRAT. A northern name for a turbot.

BRAVE. This word was not only used to express courage by our early seamen, but was also applied to strength; as, "we had a brave wind."

BRAWET. A kind of eel in the north.

BRAY, To. To beat and bruise in a mortar.

BREACH. Formerly, what is made by the breaking in of the sea, now applied also to the openings or gaps made in the works of fortified places battered by an enemy's cannon. Also, an old term for a heavy surf or broken water on a sea-coast; by some called brist.

BREACHING. The act of leaping out of the water; applied to whales.