▪ I. bruckle, a. Chiefly Sc. and dial.
(ˈbrʌk(ə)l)
Forms: 4 brukel, 5 brukyl, 5–6 -ill, 6 -il, brukkil, -yll, brukle, brucle, 6– bruckle.
[OE. brucol (in scipbrucol) f. stem bruk- of brekan to break (see also brockle): but in later use, perhaps phonetic variant of brickle: cf. Sc. muckle and mickle.]
1. Liable to break; fragile, brittle.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. xii. 114 As brukkyll ice. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 64 a, Rootes..not brukle or easy to breke. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 219 Trusting vnto a piece of bruckle wood. a 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 113 (Jam.) Lasses and glasses are bruckle ware. 1858 M. Porteous Souter Johnny 29 In bruckle stane and lime. |
2. fig. Frail, uncertain, precarious, ‘shaky’.
| c 1325 Metr. Hom 120 Noht of brukel blod and bane. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. v. xii. 1309 Yhe Devilys war noucht wroucht of brukyl kynd. 1509 Fisher Wks. 91 What vessell may be more bruckle and frayle than is our body. a 1651 Calderwood Hist. Kirk (Wodrow) III. 743 Founding them upon the bruckle authoritie of profane writers. 1814 Scott Wav. lxvii, ‘My things are but in a bruckle state’. 1886 Long I. Wight Dial. 8 Bruckle, brittle. |
▪ II. † ˈbruckle, v. Obs. or dial.
[Related to Sc. bruik, to begrime (see brooked); prob. a frequentative: see -le.]
trans. To make dirty; to begrime.
Hence ˈbruckled ppl. a.
| 1648 Herrick Hesper., Temple, Boyes and bruckel'd children. 1661 L. Griffin Doctrine of Asse 7 We commonly say to Dirty Children that the Gardener will sow Leeks in their faces; we may more truly tell our Bruckled Professours that the Devill will sow Tares in their Souls. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 11 Bruckle, to dirty. Bruckled, dirty. |