▪ I. brigade, n.
(brɪˈgeɪd)
Forms: 7 brigada, -do, 7 briggad, 7–9 brigad, 7– brigade.
[a. F. brigade (15th c.), ad. It. brigata ‘company, crew, rout of good fellows’ (Florio), f. brigare to brawl, wrangle, fight, f. late L. briga (It., Pr. briga, Fr. brigue) strife, contention. See -ade. In 17th c. also in the form brigada, and improperly brigado: see -ado. Milton accented ˈbrigad, which has been followed by some later poets in the non-technical sense 2 a.]
† 1. A company or ‘crew’ of people. Obs.
| a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. James V, Wks. (1711) 199 Ye are such a brigade of papists, and antichristian crew. 1650 Howell Revol. Naples (1664) 117 All that huge Brigade of peeple. |
2. a. gen. A large body or division of troops.
| a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. James V, Wks. (1711) 91 He would..bring such war-like brigades of French and Germans. 1649 Lilly Peculiar Prognost. 6 Some motion of our Armies or stragling Brigadoes. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 675 Thither wing'd with speed A numerous Brigad hasten'd. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 16 The peace establishment of Hadrian..was composed of no less than thirty of these formidable brigades. 1855 Singleton Virgil II. 208 What kings by war Were roused, what brigads, following each, filled up The champaign. |
b. spec. A subdivision of an army, consisting formerly of two regiments or squadrons; but the composition now varies in different countries. In the British Army, an infantry unit consisting usually of three battalions and forming part of a division, or a corresponding armoured unit (for some time the word was used only of a unit of artillery).
| 1637 Monro Exped. with Mackay's Regt. ii. 184 Twelve companies thus complete would make up three squadrons..which..would make a complete briggad of foote. 1642 Charles I. in Declar. Lords & Comm. 19 May 31 A party..who commanded a Brigado. 1645 Cromwell Lett. & Sp. (Carl.) 14 Sept., Colonel Welden, with his brigade, marched to Pile Hill. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3832/2 The Duke of Vendosme left..four Brigades of Foot near the place. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 437 Marlborough, to whom William had confided an English brigade consisting of the best regiments of the old army of James. 1855 Tennyson Charge Light Brigade i, ‘Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!’ he said. 1886 Whitaker's Alm. 163 Field Artillery; 1st Brigade: Dépôt, Newcastle. |
3. A band of persons more or less organized for purposes of fighting, hunting, etc.; also a disciplined band of workers wearing a uniform, e.g. fire-brigade, shoe-black brigade. boys' brigade, an organization of the boys connected with a church or mission, for purposes of drill and instruction; begun in Glasgow in 1884.
| 1806 Hutton Course Math. I. 219 note, A brigade of sappers consists generally of eight men, divided equally into two parties. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 166 The rest were organized into three brigades, and sent off in different directions, to subsist themselves by hunting the buffalo. Ibid. 30 The various brigades of trappers. 1887 Chr. Leader 3 Mar. 134/3 The Boys' Brigade..Ladytown Free Church, Arbroath, has started a company of this brigade. |
4. Comb. and attrib., as brigade depot, brigade ribbon; brigade group (see quot. 1953); brigade-major, a staff officer attached to a brigade, who assists the brigadier in command, and acts as the channel through which orders are issued and reports and correspondence transmitted.
| 1810 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. V. 598 A Brigade Major appears to me to be a necessary appointment in Cadiz. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 59 The Brigade-Major, or an orderly Adjutant, is to be constantly in the Lines of the Camp of the Brigade. 1873 Ibid. §5 Brigade depots are..to be inspected. 1945 Diamond Track (Army Board, N.Z.) 6/1 A brigade group with vehicles moving at 100 yards intervals. 1948 Lindsell & Benoy Lindsell's Mil. Organization (ed. 27) 26 The Territorial Army is in future therefore to include..Four independent infantry brigade groups. 1953 E. Smith Guide to Eng. Traditions 9 There may even be a composite ‘brigade group’, in which three infantry battalions are supported by a regiment of artillery, a squadron of Royal Engineers, and signal and transport units, &c. |
▪ II. brigade, v.
(brɪˈgeɪd)
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To form into a brigade or brigades; to join (a regiment or other body of troops) with others so as to form a brigade.
| 1805 Ann. Rev. III. 240 A shire is too large a division for brigading together the resident men in arms. 1837 Blackw. Mag. XLI. 37 The firemen..have been combined into one body—‘brigaded’, as the rather affected phrase is. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 85 My regiment was brigaded with the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Regiments. |
2. loosely. To form (people) as if into a brigade; to combine, associate.
| a 1859 De Quincey Whiggism Wks. VI. 100 Brigaded with so many scowling republicans are to be found..nearly one-half of our aristocracy. 1878 M. E. Herbert tr. Hübner's Ramble II. iii. 537 Men, who were brigaded, and always ready to trouble the public. |