† browis Obs. or dial.
(ˈbraʊɪs)
Forms: 3 broys, 4 brouwys, 5 browyce, 5–6 browes, 5–7 -esse, 7– browis; see also brewis, brose.
[ME. broys, browes, a. OF. broez, brouetz, nom. of broet, brouet, browet. Of this word browet is an original doublet, and brewis, brose, later variants.]
† 1. = brewis, in both senses.
| a 1300 Havelok 924 Make þe broys in þe led. c 1325 Coer de L. 3077 Soupyd off the brouwys a sope. c 1430 Lydg. Order of Fooles Min. Poems 165 Tendre browyce made with a mary-boon. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 53 Browesse [v.r. browes], adipatum. c 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 8 She come into the warderobe to ete browesse. 1513 W. de Worde Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 274 Potage, as wortes, Iowtes, or browes. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 72, I will eate no browesse sops. 1601 Holland Pliny xix. viii, A kinde of broth or browesse. 1658 R. Franck North. Mem. (1821) 209 When they kill a beast..make a caldron of his skin, browis of his bowels. |
2. A kind of brose; as the browis of the Sheffield Cutlers' Feast, a dish made by pouring boiling water upon oat-cakes mixed with dripping, and seasoned with pepper, salt, and butter.
| 1839 A. Bywater Sheffield Dial. (1877) 32 Nettle porridge an' brawis. 1880 Sheff. Independent 3 Sept., Returning to their hall, the members of the Company partook of ‘browis’—a cunningly devised broth without which the installation [of the Master Cutler] would not be complete. |