▪ I. † bree, n.1 Obs. exc. north. dial.
(briː)
Forms: 1 brǽw, bréaw, 3 pl. breow-en, 4–5 pl. brew-is, 5 pl. bren; also 1 bréaᵹ, bréᵹ (-éᵹh, -éhᵹ), 3 breyh, 3–4 breȝe, breye, pl. briȝ-es, 5 pl. bregh-is, briys, 6 bryes, Sc. breis, 5–6 bre, 6–7 brie, 5– bree.
[OE. brǽw, bréaw, Anglian *bréw, bréᵹ, bréaᵹ, masc. ‘eye-lid’; according to Sievers, an i- stem, OTeut. type *bræ̂ˈwi-, bræ̂ˈhwi-; cf. OFris. (âg-)brê, neut.: the corresponding word elsewhere is a fem. â- stem, OS. brâwa, brâha (LG. braue, MDu. brauwe, Du. wenkbraauw eye-brow), OHG. brâwa, brâa, brâ, eye-lash (MHG. brâwe, brâ, Ger. (augen-)braue eye-brow, also -braune, a modern corruption from the pl. brâwen, brauen, braun), ON. brá, brǫ́ eye-lid:—OTeut. *bræ̂wâ, from *bræ̂hwâ. The Gothic *brêwa, *brêhwa is not preserved; but cf. brahw ‘blink, twinkle’, in brahwa augins ‘in the twinkling of an eye’. This points to a radical sense ‘blinker, twinkler’ as a name of the eye-lid (or eye-lash), in which case this word cannot well be referred to the same root as brow, OTeut. brû- ‘eye-brow’, as generally assumed. Yet the two words curiously interchanged in use in different langs., and at different periods; and in continental WGer. the brû- forms were lost, and their place supplied by forms from bræ̂wâ-. The original sense of brû- was ‘eye-brow’; in OE. extended and transferred to ‘eye-lash’, so that ‘eye-brow’ was distinguished as ofer-br{uacu}. The original sense of bræ̂wâ- was app. ‘eye-lid’, as in ON. and OE., but in OHG. restricted to ‘eye-lash’, and thence subsequently extended and transferred to ‘eye-brow’ (orig. obara brâwa), the sense ‘eye-lash’ being brought down to modern times by the compound wint-brâwa, MHG. wint-brâ, winbrâ, mod.Ger. wimper. OE. had br{uacu} = eye-lash (cilium), bræ̂w, bréᵹ = eye-lid (palpebra); by the 13th c. bru, brouw passed to the sense ‘eye-lid’, and brew (breow, breȝ, bree) to that of ‘eye-brow’; the latter sense was retained by bree in the north, after it had in turn been taken up by brow in the south. From 15th to 17th c. bree was used by some southern writers as = ‘eye-lash’, a curious reversion to what had been the original OE. sense of br{uacu}, brow, q.v. (The ON. cognate brǭ gave brae.)
(The parallelism of *brû- and *bræ̂wâ- is further seen in the fact that ‘eye-brows’ was expressed in OHG. by obarun brâwa, ubarbrâwo (Graff III. 315), in OE. by oferbr{uacu}a, and in ME. uvere breyhes, briȝes aboue þe eiȝes, aboue breghis. For the phonetic explanation of the late WS. form bréaw from brǽw, see Sievers Ags. Gram. (ed. 2) §112, 118.)]
† 1. The lid of the eye, the eye-lid. (In Layamon the breow of the first text is displaced by brouw, brow in the second text.) Obs.
| c 890 K. ælfred Bæda iv. xxxii. §1 (Bosw.) Unwlitiᵹ swile..his eaᵹan breᵹh [palpebram oculi] wyrde. a 1000 Ags. Psalter cxxxi[i]. 4 Gif ic..minum breawum beode hnappunga. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 38 Wiþ þiccum bræwum ᵹenim þreo hand fulla mucwyrte. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 156/38 Palpebræ, breawas. c 1205 Lay. 18374 Þa hing his breowen adun [c 1275 Þo heng he his brouwes adun]. |
2. The eye-brow: sometimes the hair, sometimes including the superciliary ridge. (Distinguished at first as uvere breyh, briȝes above the eiȝes, aboue breghis: since Wyclif, only north.: still Sc.)
| c 1275 XI Pains of Hell 98 in O.E. Misc. 150 Sume to heore myd-þeyh, And sume to heore vuere breyh. c 1375 ― (Vernon MS.) 111 ibid. 226 Þo þat weren vp to þe briȝes In þat flod aboue þe eiȝes. 1388 Wyclif Lev. xiv. 9 That..he shaue the heeris of the heed, and the beerd, and brewis [supercilia]. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3780 Blake horit aboue breghis and other Serklyt of hom seluyn. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xxx, Bore-hedis of blakke, and brees full bold. c 1420 Avow. Arth. xxvii, Gauan bare him fro his stede, That both his brees con blede. c 1485 Digby Myst. (Mor. Wisd.) 196 For sorowe my bren I knette. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. vii. 96 Hir ene fixit apon the ground held sche, Moving na mair hir curage, face nor bre. 1517 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxix. ii, His head was greate, beteled was his browes..His bryes brystled truely lyke a sowes. 1550 Lyndesay Sqr. Meldr. 1293 He hat the Knicht abone the breis. 1768 Ross Helenore (1789) 74 (Jam.) They..lay stane still, not moving ee nor bree. Mod. Sc. He is dirt up to the very ee-brees. |
† 3. An eye-lash. Obs.
| c 1450 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 631 Cilium, [gloss] brye. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 23 The briys of hys ye lyddys beganne firste a lytil to moue. 1530 Palsgr. 201/1 Bree of the eye, poil de loiel. 1656 W. Dugard Gate Lat. Unl. §205. 57 The brees (growing out of the edg of the ey-lids)..hinder, that nothing may fall thereinto. |
▪ II. bree, n.2 Obs. exc. Sc.
(briː)
Forms: 1 briw, 2 bri, 4–5 bre, 8– bree.
[Derivation obscure: the ME. bre mod.Sc. bree, may be the same as the earlier ME. bri, OE. briᵹ, br{iacu}w, but the phonology is not clear, and the sense is not quite identical. (Bre might however represent *bréow, a possible variant of br{iacu}w; cf. n{iacu}w, néow, etc.) OE. br{iacu}w, br{iacu}ᵹ masc. = OHG. brîo (brîw-), brî (MHG. brîe, brî, mod.Ger. brei), MLG. brîg, brî, MDu. brî, all masc. (Du. brij fem.):—OTeut. *brîwo-z: the Goth. *breiws is not exemplified, and the word is not in Scand. It cannot well be referred to brū̆, root of brew, nor to bræ̂-, brê-, to warm; Kluge suggests a root bri to cook.]
† 1. A thick pottage made of meal, pulse, etc. Obs.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 88 Swa þicce swa briw. Ibid. 264 Wyrc him briw of wealwyrte moran. c 1000 ælfric Gram. ix. §46 Hæc puls, ðes briw. a 1200 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 547/12 Puls, bri. |
2. Broth, juice, liquor in which anything has been steeped or boiled, or which flows from it. barley-bree: malt liquor. herring-bree: herring-brine. Also fig.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum 17 Perboyle thyn oysturs..Kepe welle thy bre. Ibid. 49 In fat bre fresshe of befe I wene, Þay schalle be soþun. 1786 Burns Sc. Drink xiii, How easy can the barley-bree Cement the quarrel! 1861 Ramsay Remin. Ser. ii. 90 We wring't [the Lord's Prayer], an' we wring 't, an' the bree o't washes a' the lave o' our prayers. 1865 Times 22 Apr., ‘Snow bree’ is unfavourable to angling. |
† 3. fig. Water; the sea. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 3697 So þe bre and the brethe burbelit to gedur. Ibid. 12516 All the company..With þere shippes..were brent in the bre with the breme lowe of the leymonde laite, þat launchit fro heuyn. |
▪ III. bree, n.3 north. dial.
[perh. an erroneous form from breeze n.2, sense 4: cf. next word.]
Disturbance, commotion, disagreement.
| 1790 Shirref Poems 67 (Jam.) Ye'll..see It thro' the parish raise an unco bree. 1807 Stagg Poems 8 They're off wi' seck a bree. 1821 Mrs. Wheeler Westmrld. Dial. 88 We hed a sort of a bree ont afore ea went. |
▪ IV. bree, n.4
obs. or dial. form of breeze n.1 gadfly. A singular inferred from brees, taken as pl.
| 1678 A. Littleton Lat. Dict., A bree, asilus, tabanus. |
▪ V. † bree, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Also 4 bre, 5 Sc. brey.
[OE. bréᵹan to terrify, frighten (:—bróegan) f. bróga fear, terror; cf. OHG. bruogen.]
1. trans. To terrify, affright, scare.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xii. 4 Ne beo ᵹe breᵹyde fram þam þe þone lichaman of-sleað. Ibid. xxiv. 22 Sume wif..us breᵹdon þa wæron ær leohte æt þære byrᵹene. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. iv. 36 A Serpent..breyd þame all standand þare-by. c 1505 Douglas K. Hart i. xxiv, It culd thame bre, and biggit thame to byde. 1674 Ray N.-C. Wds. 8 Bree, to frighten. 1750 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) Wks. 51 I'r so feerfully breed at meh hure stood on eend. 1875 in Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) 55 He was fair breed. |
2. ? intr. To be terrified.
| c 1375 ? Barbour St. Theodera 15 Befor þe croice he [the devil] sa breis Þat, quhene he It seis, þane he fleis. |