▪ I. bracing, vbl. n.1
(ˈbreɪsɪŋ)
[f. brace v.1]
1. The action of embracing (obs.), girding, binding tightly, lacing up, strengthening: see the verb.
| 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 53 Ane devill in forme of woman..quhilk..tistit him, be voluptuous brasing, to hir plesoure. a 1631 Donne Serm. lxxvii. 779 a, The Brasing & beating of our Drums in the Pulpit. 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 277 Oh the lacing, the bracing, the bonneting, the veiling. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. I. 78 The moral sinew of the English must have been strong indeed when it admitted of such stringent bracing. |
2. An appliance or arrangement for tying, fastening, supporting, or strengthening. lit. and fig.
| 1849 W. Fitzgerald Whitaker's Disput. 5 The Roman synagogue..hath need continually of new supports and bracings. 1861 Times 7 Oct., There were bracings on the top of the girders, which would have the effect of steadying them. 1883 Law Times Rep. XLIX. 139/1 The standards were not secured by any ties or bracings of any kind. |
3. attrib. (or ? the ppl. a.), as in bracing-girdle, bracing-rope; bracing-chain, a chain used to bind together the sides of a wagon bearing a heavy load.
| 1552 Huloet, Bracynge gyrdle, subcingulum. 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 295 Fixing or loosening the bracing-ropes. |
▪ II. † bracing, vbl. n.2 Obs.
Also 6 brasing.
[f. brace v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of assuming a bold or defiant attitude. In phrase facing and bracing.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard 115 Whiche wyth grete facing and bracyng oppresse the poure peple. 1541 R. Barnes Wks. (1573) 290/1 My Lordes, leue of your fasing and your brasing: for our Lord..will at length not bee out faced. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xii. 5. 39 Their importunate facing and bracing in woordes [orig. improba verborum jactantia]. |
▪ III. ˈbracing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That braces, girds, etc. Now used chiefly of the air or climate; formerly of tonic medicines.
| 1750 Rutty in Phil. Trans. LI. 476 A powerful..bracing..medicine. 1821 Keats Isabel xxiv, With belt and spur and bracing huntsman's dress. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom xv. 129 The cold of a more bracing climate. 1871 G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. i. v. 154 Dry heat is bracing. |
Hence ˈbracingly adv., in a bracing manner, so as to brace. ˈbracingness, bracing quality.
| 1874 Ellacombe in Church Bells 15 Sept. (1883) 808/1 The bolts had better be put in bracingly, that is, not perpendicularly. 1876 Fortn. Rev. Mar. 341 [The Engadine] has what may be termed a graduated scale of bracingness. |