▪ I. briny, a.1
(ˈbraɪnɪ)
[f. brine n. + -y1.]
1. Of or pertaining to brine or to the sea; saturated with salt.
| 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xi. 172 Those two renowned Wyches, The Nant-wyche and the North, whose either brynie well For store and sorts of Salts make Weever to excell. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. ii. 32, I stood Upon the Margin of the briny Flood. 1799 S. Turner Anglo-Sax. (1840) I. iv. i. 263 Vast solitudes and briny marshes. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 73 Fresh water is constantly distilled from the briny ocean. |
b. Applied to tears.
| 1608 T. Davison in Farr S.P. (1845) II. 330 A bryney showre Of teares. 1718 Pope Iliad ix. 18 Down his wan cheek a briny torrent flows. 1728 A. Ramsay Robt., Richy, & S., Ilka briny tear Ye shed for him. |
▪ II. briny, a.2 (? n.)
[Cf. OE. bryne, brune, and burning n. 3.]
Phosphorescent, ? phosphorescence (of the sea).
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 26 b, If the sea-water bee flashed with a sticke or oare, the same casteth a bright shining colour, and the drops thereof resemble sparckles of fire, as if the waues were turned into flames, which the Saylers terme Briny. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., Briny, phosphorescent. |
▪ III. briny, n. colloq. or joc.
(ˈbraɪnɪ)
Also briney.
[f. briny a.1]
The sea, the ocean.
| 1831 J. Banim Smuggler I. xii. 276 What is he to do without a sharp 'un to chaffer with the Parleys across the briney? Ibid. III. 40 He was seen at t'other side of the briny. 1880 H. Evans Brighton Beach Loafer (1888) 6 Tales of unutterable woe and adventures undergone on the ‘briny’. |