ˈeye-bree
[f. eye n.1 + bree n.1]
† a. = eye-lid. Obs. b. = eye-lash. Obs. c. = eye-brow. Obs. exc. Sc. and dial.
| a. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 352 Niwe ᵹate cyse oferᵹeseted mid þa eaᵹbræwas. c 1300 Song agst. Retinues in Pol. Songs (Camden) 239 Sene is on is browe Ant on is eȝe⁓brewe, That [etc.]. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 137 b, The juice of it [mustarde]..is good..for the roughnes of the ey⁓brees. 1604 T. Wright Passions i. vii. 29 The fornication of a woman shall be knowen by the lifting vp of her eyes, and in her eye-bries. 1617 Markham Caval. v. 17 All those long and stiffe haires which growe close aboue his vpper eye-brees. 1787 in Grose Provinc. Gloss., Suppl. |
| b. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 117 A horse when he beginnes to be olde, his temples waxe hollowe, his eye bries gray. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 67 Into the same hue do they dy their eie-breis, and eye-browes. |
| c. 1776 D. Herd Scot. Songs I. 210 And the sweat it dropt down Frae my very eye-brie. a 1803 Jamieson Water-Kelpie 43 (in Scott Minstr.), Of filthy gar his ee-brees war. 1862 Dialect of Leeds 257 ‘Ee-brees’, eyebrows. Mod. Sc. He is dirt up to the very ee-brees. |