▪ I. bruise, n.
(bruːz)
[f. the vb.]
† 1. A breaking; a breach. Obs.
| 1441 Plumpton Corr. Introd. 60 In eschewing of blood⁓shedding and bruses of the Kings peace. 1530 Palsgr. 201/2 Brosyng or broose, briseure. |
2. A hurt or injury to the body by a blunt or heavy instrument, causing discoloration but not laceration of the skin; a contusion.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 F ij, Yf in the parties rounde about y⊇ vlcere there is eyther bruse, phlegmon, or other tumour. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 327 Wounds are most commonly made with sharp or piercing weapons, and bruises with blunt weapons. 1663–78 Butler Hud. (J.) One arm'd with metal, th' other with wood, This fit for bruise, and that for blood. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 223 ¶4 The Bruises which they often received in their Fall. 1859 Tennyson Elaine 1159 His costly gift, Hard-won and hardly won with bruise and blow. |
b. Of a plant, fruit, or other body.
| 1678 N. Wanley Wonders iii. xliv. §18. 226/2 He..threw it with that force against the floor that the solidest metal would have received some damage or bruise thereby. 1770 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) IV. 285 Pileus..nearly flat..thin at the edge, turning watery on the least bruise. |
c. spec. A contusion or injury caused by jambing; Sc. in form brizz.
| Mod.Sc. His hand has got a bad brizz under the wheel. |
3. Comb., as bruise-like adj.; † bruise-root (see quot.); bruise-wort.
| 1698 Newton Papaver Corn. in Phil. Trans. XX. 263 Or Horned Poppy, with a Yellow Flower, vulgarly called in Hampshire, Squatmore, or Bruseroot. 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 908/1 The bruise-like swelling. |
▪ II. bruise, v.
(bruːz)
Forms: 1 br{yacu}san, 3–5 brisen, 3–6 brise, (4 bris), 3–7 bruse, 4–6 broose, brose, bryse, 5 brese, bresse, brysse, burse, 5–6 brisse, broyse, brouse, 6 brusse, broose, 6–7 bruze, 7, 9 bruize, 6– bruise; (also Sc. 4 byrs, 6 birs, 8 birze, 8– brizz; 8–9 north. dial. bruzz: see also birse v.).
[OE. br{yacu}san to crush, bruise, with which afterwards coalesced F. brisie-r, bruisier, bruser, to break, smash, shatter. The latter is of uncertain origin: see Diez, Littré, and Scheler. (The Anglo-French form was bruser: see senses 2, 3.) The normal modern Eng. representative alike of OE. br{yacu}se and OF. brise would be brīse (braɪz). The early ME. bruse may be explained as a s.w. spelling with the usual ü= OE. ȳ; brēse may also be accounted for as the Kentish form with ē for OE. ȳ; but the ME. forms brose, broose, broyse, brouse, and the modern bruize must be from the OFr. forms, though the phonological details are obscure. The shortening of the vowel in 15th c. northern brisse, brysse, and mod.Sc. brizz, Eng. dial. bruzz, is also unusual.]
1. trans. ‘To crush or mangle with the heavy blow of something not edged or pointed; to crush by any weight’ (J.). But now chiefly in a weaker sense: To injure by a blow which discolours the skin but does not lacerate it, and breaks no bones; to contuse: a. (the body of men or animals).
(α) Forms br{yacu}san, brise, brese, birse, byrse, briss.
| c 890 K. ælfred Bæda v. vi. (Bosw.) His preosta ænne of horse fallende and ᵹebrysedne. a 1000 Be Domes Dæᵹe 49 Ne mid swiðran his swyþe nele brysan wanhydiᵹ ᵹemod. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 61 He wile smite mid..swuerde . and brisen. a 1300 Havelok 1835 That he sholde him..brisen so, that wit no salue Ne sholde him helen leche non. c 1375 ? Barbour St. Vincentius 395 Sancte Vincent tormentit wes Byrsit, beft & brynt. c 1400 Destr. Troy 7929 My body hath þou brisit. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 237 Upon an olde stede, That was bresyd and blynde. 1470–85 Malory Arthur (1817) I. 375 Sir kayes hors brysed hym ful sore. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. iii. 1924 He..brissit all my banis. |
(β) Form bruse, bruze.
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 501 In þe þikkeste pres he..Breek braynes a-brod, brusede burnes. 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. III. 59 Þe Sabynes..brusede and ouerlay þat mayde [Tarpeia]. 1516 Fabyan Chron. II. 538 The erle marshall ouerthrewe his appellaunt, and so brusyd hym, y{supt}..he dyed. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. iv. 34 Least they [fishes] their finnes should bruze..upon the stony grownd. 1591 ― Virgil's Gnat xxxvii, And with his hand him rashly bruzing slewe. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 221 And thereby brused the head of the..enemie of mankinde. |
(γ) Form brose, broyse, broose, brouse.
| 1382 Wyclif Num. xxii. 25 The asse ioynede hym silf to the wal, and briside [v.r. brosede] the foot of the sitter. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxx, On a shelde, brosed and affrayde They bare hym home. 1494 Fabyan vi. clxiii. 140 [He] fell from his horse..whereof he was soo broysyd that he dyed. 1529 More Comfort agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1178/2 The iuste man though he fal, shall not be broosed. 1530 Palsgr. 471/2, I brose with a stroke or with a fall..I have brousyd my shoulder with fallynge downe the stayres. c 1563 Thersites in 4 Old Plays (1848) 77 He wyll brose me. |
(δ) Form bruise, bruize.
| 1580 Baret Alv. B 1412 A wounde bruised is woorse than that is onely cut. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 294, I bruiz'd my shin th' other day. 1611 Bible Gen. iii. 15 It shal bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heele. 1662 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 332 He fell down, and bruised himself to death. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 45 ¶7, I am bruised to Death. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. x. 261 [They] made no scruple..to beat and bruise him. 1842 Tennyson Two Voices 222 Cursed and scorn'd, and bruised with stones. 1871 Morley Voltaire 74 In England..the peasant has not his feet bruised in wooden shoes. |
b. (plants, fruit).
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1047 Bot quen hit [the fruit] is brused oþer broken oþer byten in twynne. 1523 Fitzherb. §129 Get as manye rotes with them as thou canste and breake them not nor bryse them. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 8 Nor bruise her Flowrets with the Armed hoofes Of hostile paces. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Providence xvii. Bees work for man; and yet they never bruise Their masters flower. 1681 Baxter in Bk. of Praise (1862) 202 If death shall bruise this springing seed Before it comes to fruit. |
c. To make a dent in, crush out of shape, batter (a hard surface).
| 1530 Palsgr. 471/2, I brose harnesse or ones flesshe, whan it synketh in with the weyghtynesse of strokes, Jenfondre. His heed pece was brosed with the stroke that a man myght have layed his hande in the hole. 1599 [see bruised ppl. a.] 1875 Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) 60 Aw've bruzzed mi clog-nose wi puncin' that owd can. |
d. To maul as a boxer or prize-fighter.
| a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour i. i, He shall bruise three a month. |
† 2. To break (in pieces, down), to smash. Obs. [This sense was apparently from French.]
| [1292 Britton i. xi. §1 Ceux, qi felounousement..brusent eglises, ou autri mesouns.] a 1300 E.E. Psalter xlv[i]. 10 Bowe shall he bris, and breke wapenes ma. 1382 Wyclif 2 Kings xi. 18 And thei distruyden his auters and the ymagis broosiden to gydris miȝtily. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 438/4 He toke breed and..brosyd and gaue it to his dyscyples. 1494 Fabyan vii. ccxxiv. 286 Kyng Phylyp..broused or crased y⊇ castellys. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 30 Not leue standyng neyther castel nor toure vp right; but I shall bruise them downe to the erth. 1535 Coverdale Dan. ii. 40 As yron brusseth and breaketh all thinges. 1590 R. Ferris Trav. Bristowe in Collier Illust. E.E. Pop. Lit. xvii, Had his foote once slipped..he would haue beene brused in peeces. 1611 Art of Venerie 77 Let him plash or bruse down small twigges. |
3. fig. (to senses 1, 2, 4) To crush, wound, disable.
| [1292 Britton i. xxi. §7 Qi les sequestres de nos ministres a escient eynt bruseez.] 1382 Wyclif Deut. ix. 3 Fier deuowrynge and wastynge, the which brisse [MS. E. bruse] hem down. ― Prov. Prol. 1 Thurȝ long sicknesse brosid. c 1500 Partenay 3748 Peruers fortune..Which on reisith, Anothir don brise. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. ii. 2 Bruis'd vnderneath the yoake of Tyranny. 1600 Holland Livy xlii. l. 1144 How they have quelled and bruised [fregisse] the puissance of the Carthaginians. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 884 An Iron Rod to bruise and breake Thy disobedience. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. (1886) III. 44 He feared that violent surgery which in eradicating a false opinion fatally bruises at the same time a true and wholesome feeling that may cling to it. |
4. To beat small, pound, crush, bray, grind down.
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. ii. 16 A part of the brisde corn. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xvi. (1495) 121 The Iawes ben as it were two mylstones contynued to brose and grynde the mete. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 45 Ȝif þay [peas] ben harde..Brysse hom or strene hom. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §59 Take that grasse, and broyse it a lyttell in a morter. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 194 Some scatt'ring Pot-herbs..bruis'd with Vervain. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 415 Bruize eight gallons of red currants with one quart of raspberries. 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 15/1 Larger morsels..are first seized and bruised by the dental apparatus. |
† 5. To crush by pressure, jam, squeeze. (The ordinary sense in mod.Sc. See also birse v.)
| 1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iii. §6 Wind bruised out of a bladder. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iii. iii. Poems (1844) 38 Let my arms..brizz thy bonny breasts and lips to mine. a 1774 Fergusson Drink Eclog. Poems (1845) 51 The thrifty guid-wife sees Her lasses kirn, or birze the dainty cheese. Mod.Sc. He has briz'd his finger in the door. |
6. Naut. to bruise water: see quots.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Bruising water, pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little head-way. Bruise-water, a ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than sailing. 1880 Daily Tel. 7 Sept., While, rail under, she is bruising her water like a barge. |
7. intr. with along. To ride on recklessly, without regard to fences or crops damaged, or to sparing the horse. (Hunting slang: cf. to pound along.)
| 1865 Dublin Univ. Mag. II. 19 A majority of those who follow them have..no notion of hunting, but go ‘bruising’ along. 1872 Anteros xii. 110 The baron hunted his five days..bruising along..determinedly. |
8. To become bruised.
| 1912 W. Deeping Sincerity xxii. 175 The huge mouth seemed to bruise like an over-ripe love-apple. |
▪ III. bruise
obs. form of brewis; var. of brose.