▪ I. broth, n.
(brɒθ, -ɔː-)
Forms: 1–4 broþ, 4–6 brothe, 6–8 broath, 7 broathe, 3– broth.
[Com. Teut.: OE. broþ = OHG. brod, prod, ON. broð:—OTeut. broþo(m), f. vb.-root brū̆- to prepare by boiling, make a decoction: see brew. (Cf. F. bouillon broth, f. bouillir to boil.) The OHG. word was adopted in Romanic, giving med.L. brodum, brodium, It. brodo, Sp., Pg. brodio, Pr. bro, OF. bro, breu, whence broet, browet, brewis. Irish broth, Gael. brot, are from Eng.]
1. a. The liquid in which anything has been boiled, and which is impregnated with its juice; a decoction; esp. that in which meat is boiled or macerated; also a thin soup made from this with the addition of vegetables, pearl barley, rice, etc., as Scotch ‘broth’.
| a 1000 Colloq. Monast. xxix. 13 (Bosw.) Fætt broþ ᵹe maᵹon habban. 1297 R. Glouc. 528 On of is men..Caste broth vp a clerc. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. (Tollemache MS.) xvii. lxx, Broþ of þe leues þerof [broom] abateþ swellynge of þe splene. c 1400 Mandeville xxiii. 250 Non other potages but the brothe of the flesche. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 53 Brothe, brodium, liquamen. 1530 Palsgr. 201/2 Brothe of fysshe or flesshe, brovet. 1535 Coverdale Judg. vi. 20 Take the flesh..& set it vpon the stonye rocke..and poure the broth theron. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xxxix. 57 The decoction or brothe of Agrimonie. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. 281 She herself had used to make the broaths. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 50 He..sawc'st our Brothes, as Juno had bin sicke, And he her Dieter. 1665 Gerbier Princ. 24 Too many Cooks spoils the Broth. 1682 N. O. Boileau's Lutrin i. 7 Bad 'em serve in the broath [rime loath]. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 308 ¶3, I am sure..you love Broth better than Soup. 1804 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Gt. Cry & Litt. Wool Wks. 1812 V. 165 The more cooks the worse broth. 1861 Ramsay Remin. (ed. 18) 118 She..never did more than to sup a few family broth. |
b. fig. and transf. (Cf. stew, browst, etc.).
| c 1526 Frith Disput. Purgatory (1829) 141 If he had thought to have gone through purgatory..there should he have had an hot broth and an heartless. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon vi. 13 He sware he wolde purchace for the two sonnes..suche a broth [1601 traine] that they shulde bothe dye in doloure. 1878 Seeley Stein III. 390 They..want to..dissolve all civil society into a great fluid broth. |
c. Bacteriol. A liquid (as a sterilized infusion of meat) prepared or used as a culture medium.
| 1885 Woodhead & Hare Pathological Mycol. iv. 107 To carry on cultivations with the sterile broth thus prepared, it is convenient to have it divided into small quantities. 1897 Pearmain & Moor Appl. Bacteriol. ii. 57 Glycerin-broth is used for the cultivation of the tubercle bacillus. 1899 G. Newman Bacteria i. 21 To provide peptone beef-broth, ten grains of peptone and five grains of common salt are added to every litre of acid beef-broth. 1930 Syst. Bacteriol. (Med. Res. Council) I. ix. 354 Old cultures in ordinary broth often yield a considerable variety of colonies when plated on agar or gelatin. 1956 R. Hare Outl. Bacteriol. & Immunity ii. 37 Infusion broth..consists of the extractives which go into solution when minced meat is allowed to steep in water. 1959 [see broth culture]. |
† 2. Loosely applied to various boiled, brewed, or decocted liquors; also to the brine of ocean, melted snow (snow-broth), etc. Cf. Sc. bree, broo.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 28 With brothe of venegur drawȝe hit withalle. 1558 Phaër æneid viii. Z iv, There went the salt sea broad with swellynge broth. 1593 Bacchus Bountie in Harl. Misc. (1809) II. 264 Bickering with the broth of bountifull Bacchus. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Odour ii, This broth of smells, that feeds & fats my minde. 1691 Ray Making of Salt 206 If you put in too much [ale] it will make the Broth [of brine] boil over the Pan. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat II. 361 A sop in the briny broth of ocean. |
3. Phrases. † to make white broth of, said of boiling to death (as a poisoner). a broth of a boy: the essence of what a boy should be, a downright good fellow (colloq. Irish).
| c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 4 She was afraid that Cook the Lord Chief Justice would have made white broth of them, but the prerogative kept them from the pot. 1822 Byron Juan viii. xxiv, Juan was quite ‘a broth of a boy’. 1843 Mrs. Tonna Judah's Lion 131 Papa says you are the broth of a boy, for taking care of me. |
4. Comb.: broth culture, (the micro-organisms in) a sample of broth used as a culture medium.
| 1897 Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. IV. 196 To test the virulence of our bacilli we injected guinea-pigs subcutaneously with broth-cultures. 1909 Practitioner Nov. 596 Over the surface of the agar..pour a two-days old broth culture of bacillus prodigiosus. 1959 F. S. Stewart Bigger's Handbk. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) x. 190 Serial dilutions of the drug are made in broth and inoculated with the organism—the inoculum usually being a small amount of a broth culture. |
▪ II. † broth, brothe, a. Obs.
[ME. brōþ:—earlier brāþ (north Eng. brāth: see brath):—ON. bráð-r hasty, rash, passionate.]
Impetuous, violent, passionate, wrathful; also quasi-n.
| c 1200 Ormin 7172 Þat he be grimme..& braþ. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 149 Þat oþer burne watz abayst of his broþe wordez. c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2233 He..orpedly strydez, Bremly broþe on a bent. c 1420 Avow. Arth. xvi. Thus bidus that brothe. |