▪ I. braird, n.
(brɛəd)
Also 5–6 brerd, 6–8 breird, brierd, 8 breard, brere.
[The same word with brerd; the OE. brerd probably, like the Teut. cognates, had the senses of ‘point, spike, blade of grass’, as well as that of ‘edge’, though the former are recorded only for the form brord.]
Properly Sc. (brerd, brird), but now sometimes used by Eng. writers: the first shoots of grass, corn, or other crops.
| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 3 The corne abreird. Ibid. 59 Now it is Lent, now it is hie on brierd. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 77 The cornis croppis and the beris new brerd. 1721 Kelly Scottish Prov. 328 There is no breard like midding breard. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. V. 11 Hares surprised..among the early braird. 1859 Tennent Ceylon 25 The delicate braird that springs after the surface has been annually burnt. |
▪ II. braird, v.
(brɛəd)
[f. prec.]
intr. Of corn, etc.: To sprout, to appear above the ground.
| c 1450 Henryson Fables 1904 (Anglia IX. 337) The wickit thocht begynnis for to breird. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. ix [viii]. 60 With schyning skyn new brerd. 1865 Carter's Gard. & Farmer's Vade-M. ii. After the seed has brairded, it may be well to cover it by hand-hoeing. 1883 Trans. Highl. Soc. Agric. Ser. iv. XV. 38 The potatoes..came up..not quite as straight as a line when brairding. 1884 Times 20 June 4 Present sowings [in swedes and turnips] may braird well. |
Hence brairded, brairding, breirding.
| 1765 Rutherford Lett. i. lxxiii. (Jam.) I find a little breirding of God's seed in this town. 1854 Phemie Millar 35 The freshly brairded fields. |