▪ I. brawn, n.
(brɔːn)
Forms: 4 brahun, 4–6 braun(e, 4 brawen, 4–7 brawne, (5 browne), 6 brawyne, 5– brawn.
[a. OF. braon, braoun (braion) fleshy part, muscle, particularly the most fleshy part of the hind leg, originally a part suitable for roasting, corresp. to Pr. bradon; ad. WGer. brâdo, f. brâdan to roast (see brede v.1). The specific sense ‘boar's flesh’ is exclusively of English development, and characteristic of English habits.]
1. Fleshy part, muscle; esp. the rounded muscles of the arm, leg and thumb.
| c 1325 Gloss W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 148 En la jambe [the caalf] est la sure [brahun]. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1280 Hise lymes grete, hise brawnes harde and stronge. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxvii. (1495) 136 The armes ben..coueryd wyth skinne brawne and strenges with flesshe amonge. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 675 Take oxen yonge..in brawnes rising greet. 1568 Jacob & Esau ii. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 209 My teeth I can scarcely charm From gnawing away the brawn of my very arm. 1608 Middleton Mad World ii. vii, Is not your honour sore about the brawn of the arm? 1617 Markham Caval. ii. 49 Your thombe close vpon the reynes, with the brawne thereof turned toward the pomell of your saddle. 1718 Pope Iliad xvi. 374 His blow..transpierced his thigh, Tore all the brawn. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. 360 All laymen who are allowed this privilege shall be burnt with a hot iron in the brawn of the left thumb. 1865 Holland Plain T. viii. 27 God makes a man of bone, brawn and blood. |
b. spec. The arm, the calf of the leg, the buttock.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xxii. 9 The brawnes [1388 schuldres; Vulg. lacertos; 1611 arms] of moderles childer thou tobrosedist. 1581 T. Nuce Seneca's Octavia 175 Sir Brutus sterne, his brawnes and armes did dight, His soueraigne liege to slayne by force and might. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. v. 126 Once more to hew thy Target from thy Brawne. 1864 Glasgow Her. 24 Sept., Stiffish a little, with a peculiar sensation about the brawns. |
c. transf. and
fig.| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 470 The outside..of the leaf hath in it certain strings, sinues or veins, brawns and ioynts. 1883 H. George Progr. & Pov. 388 Liberty is..the brawn of national strength, the spirit of national independence. |
† 2. The muscle or flesh of animals as food.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1631 Suche a brawne of a best..Ne such sydes of a swyn, segh he never are. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvi. 67 Braun and blod of þe goos, bacon and colhoppes. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 430 Then take the braune of hennes, or of capons, and bray hom. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 279 Bytwene the foure membres laye the brawne of the capon. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 164 b, He hath eate all the braune of the lopster. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 297 While one loues nothing but the leg [of a fowl], another likes and praises the white brawne alone. 1655 Mouffet & Benn. Health's Improv. (1746) 150 Mingling the Brawns of Peacocks with Porks Flesh. 1656 Shepherd's Kal. xxvii, In the winter shepheards do eat beef..Brawn of Harts, Hinds and all kind of venison. |
b. In Coverdale and the ‘Great Bible’, used to render
Heb. ḥēleb ‘fat’, where Geneva, 1611, and
Rev. V. have ‘grease’. (The
orig. meaning is uncertain. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Wyclif, Douay, following a different pointing of the
Heb. ḥālāb, render ‘is curdled like milk’.)
| 1535 Coverdale Ps. cxviii. [cxix.] 70 Their herte is as fat as brawne. |
3. spec. The flesh of the boar. (Often defined as ‘brawn of a boar’, even in 16th c.) In recent use, the flesh of a boar (or swine), collared, boiled, and pickled or potted. [With the restriction of application we may compare the restriction of
bacon, a
deriv. of
back, to the cured back and sides of the pig.]
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 62 Wombe-cloutes and wylde braune & egges yfryed with grece. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 526 Brawen of the tusked swyn. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 48 Brawne of a bore, aprina. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 89 Lay furthe of oure store, Lo here browne of a bore. 1570 Levins Manip. 44 Brawne, caro callata, aprina, callum. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. (1623) 129 The best feeding of a Swine for Larde, or a Boare for Brawne. 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 200 Is a man therefore bound..at noon to Brawn, or Beefe? a 1704 T. Brown Pleas. Ep. Wks. 1730 I. 110 Private deliberations over brawn and guest-ale. 1781 Westm. Mag. II. 47 This turban for my head is collar'd brawn! 1828 Southey Ep. A. Cunningham, Whether ham, bacon, sausage, souse or brawn. |
4. transf. A boar (or swine) as fattened for the table.
dial. Cf. bacon n.| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1095 Brokbrestede as a brawne, with brustils fulle large. 1601 Ord. R. Househ. (1790) 288 The Serjeant of the Larder hath for his fee..the feete cut off at the first joynt of every braune spent in the Queenes house. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Gt. Eater Kent Wks. i. 144/2 What say you to the Leafe or Flecke of a Brawne new kild? 1705 Susanna Wesley in Eliza Clarke Life (1886) 55 To spread a report that my own brawn (boar) did this mischief. 1791 Cowper Iliad ix. 258 With the flesh of sheep And of a fatted brawn. 1807 Stagg Poems 18 Loud as brawns war snowran. |
5. Hardened or thickened skin, the result of continued friction; also
fig. L.
callum.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens ix. lxvii. 744 The hard skinne or brawne that is in the handes or feete, which is gotten by labour. 1617 Hieron Wks. 1619–20 II. 374 Corsiues for the eating out that dead flesh which is in their hearts, & for the paring off that brawne which is growne vpon them. 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xiv. (1840) 69 Witness the brawn on his hands and knees made with continual praying. 1639 Horn & Rob. Gate Lang. Unl. xxv. §320 A brawn [thick skin] from hardning. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
brawn-bands,
brawn-buttock;
brawn-fed,
brawn-like adjs.;
† brawn-fallen a., shrunken in flesh, thin, skinny.
| 1653 Plat Gard. Eden 67 Binding the bark..with a packthred, or rather with *brawn-bands, will keep roses long from blowing. |
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. ii. 19 The barbers chair..fits..the *brawn-buttock, or any buttock. |
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 127 Were not Milo his armes *brawne-fallen for want of wrastlyng. 1606 Chapman Gentl. Usher Plays 1873 I. 288 Leane and brawn-falne; I and scarsly sound. |
| 1703 Farquhar Inconstant i. (D.) For our women here in France, they are such lean brawn-fall'n jades. |
| 1567 Drant Hor. Epist. xv. E vj, That I may cum *brawne fed. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 1393/2 The surrounding cellular texture..puts on a *brawn-like character. |
▪ II. brawn, v. (
brɔːn)
[f. prec.] 1. trans. To harden; to render callous; also
fig. Obs. (at least in
fig. sense).
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xlii. 5 Those which have bin enured to miserie from theyr chyldhood, wer brauned. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 13 b, If thou hadst not embrued or brawned thine owne hands..in blood. 1641 Baker Chron. 29/2 With continual kneeling her knees were brawned. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I, 91 Industry brawns and hardens the Armes. |
2. intr. To become hard or callous.
| 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 254/2 This cutaneous cancer..consists of a brawning induration. |
3. trans. To fatten (a boar).
| 1655 Mouffet & Benn. Health's Improv. (1746) 147 The best Way of brawning a Boar is this..Before Christmas he will be sufficiently brawned with continual lying, and prove exceedingly fat, wholesome and sweet. a 1843 Southey Nondescr. iv, Pigs were made for man..born to be brawn'd And baconized. |
† 4. intr. To grow fat. (Of a boar.)
Obs.| 1580 Tusser Husb. xv. (1878) 40 At Mihelmas safely go stie vp thy Bore..better he brawneth if hard he doo lie. |