brimse, a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); brimsees, pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. bremse; Icel. brims (Fritzner). Norw. dialect brims (Aasen); Swed. brems.
brinch, to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie); also written brince, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the German expression, Ich bring’s (euch), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. brindisi (Florio).
brinded, brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).
bring: phr. to be with one to bring: a phrase of various application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.
brist: phr. full brist, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding, Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. berstan, to burst (EDD.).
brize, a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii. 10; spelt bryze, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called briz in Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.1). OE. briosa (breosa).
brocage, procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal. (beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice, Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. brocage (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3375). Anglo-F. brocage, the action of an intermediary.
broche, the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52. OF. broche. Med. L. broca, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).
broche, broach, a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545; to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 92. F. broche, a spit; brocher, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).
brock, a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. broke, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE. broc, cp. O. Irish brocc. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense (EDD.).