▪ I. brawl, n.1
(brɔːl)
Also 5–7 brall(e, braul(e, brawle.
[f. brawl v.1]
1. A noisy turbulent quarrel, a ‘row’, a squabble.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. 190 (Mätz.) Thou has long had thi wille, and made many bralle. c 1550 Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 181 Mony leisings make mony braul. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. 151 They folishly moue a brawle about the name of First begotten. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. 86 Wheresoever any braule began, in London, it ended alwayes in the Old-Jury, with pillaging of the people therein. 1720 Watts Hymn, Whatever brawls disturb the street, There should be peace at home. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 242 Astounding the neighbourhood with midnight brawl and ruffian revelry. 1876 Green Short Hist. vii. §7. 421 He perished at thirty in a shameful brawl. |
† 2. Noisy exclamation, clamour. Obs.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 1 b, I shall have..confuted the most foolish and spitefull braules of Osorius. Ibid. 68 Of opinion that your bare braules, shalbe receaved as infallible truthes. 1611 Bible Ecclus. xxvii. 14 Their braules make one stop his eares. |
▪ II. † brawl, n.2 Obs.
Also 5 browle.
[prob. f. brawl v.1, with which at least it was associated in use: but it may have been at first identical with ME. broll: see broll n.]
A brawler, a bravo, a bully.
(Some of the following quotations are quite uncertain.)
| c 1440 York Myst. xxx. 6 What brawle þat with brawlyng me brewis. Ibid. xvi. 38 What browle þat is brawlyng his brayne loke ȝe brest. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 5 Why not this Bag to mee then too, thou brawl. 1725 Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 34 I'm his Swabber..his Book⁓keeper, his Brawl, his Errand boy. [Cf. broll n.] |
▪ III. † brawl, n.3 Obs.
Also 6–7 brall(e, 6–8 braul(e.
[f. brawl v.2, or a. F. branle, f. branler, brandeler: cf. brangle.]
1. A particular pace or movement in dancing.
| 1521 Copland Introd. Frenche 16 For to daunce ony bace daunce there behoueth .iiii. paces, that is to wite syngle, double: repryse, & braule. 1531 Elyot Gov. (1580) 71 They [the motions] may be well resembled to the braule in daunsing. |
2. A kind of French dance resembling a cotillon.
| a 1541 Wyatt Poet. Wks. (1861) 182 And in this brawl as he stood entranced. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 66 Dansand base dansis, pauans, galȝardis, turdions, braulis and branglis. 1580 Sidney Arcad. 72 Holding hand in hand daunce as it were in a braule. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 9 Will you win your loue with a French braule? 1611 Cotgr., Bransle, a brawle or daunce, wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands sometimes in a ring, and otherwhiles at length moue altogether. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 67 ¶2 The Lacedæmonians..made their Hormus (a Dance much resembling the French Brawl) famous. 1750 Gray Let. in Poems (1775) 214 My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls. 1840–2 Barham Ingol. Leg., Aunt Fanny, At some court Fancy-Ball..you may Fancy King Charles, I say, stopping the brawl. |
b. The air or music of this dance.
| c 1600 Distracted Emp. iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. (1884) III. 225, I had thought to have whysteld hym a braule for makinge me daunce attendance. |
† c. fig. [Cf. F. mener, ouvrir le branle; Eng. ‘Lead, open the ball.’]
| a 1649 Drummond Hist. Jas. III Wks. (1711) 43 The Kennedies..take the occasion..[to] change the brawl of state. |
▪ IV. † brawl, n.4 Obs.
Also braul.
‘A blue and white striped cloth manufactured in India.’ Craig.
| 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6388/2 The following Goods, viz... Allejaes, Brawls, Bombay Stuffs. 1788 Clarkson Impol. Slave Tr. 104 Blue cloths, Brawles, Bejutapants, Callicoes. |
▪ V. brawl, n.5
dial. var. of broll, Obs. brat.
▪ VI. brawl, v.1
(brɔːl)
Also 5–6 brall(e, braul(e, braull.
[Late ME.; origin and primary sense uncertain: mod.Du. has brallen to brag, boast, mod.Ger. dial. brallen to shout, roar, both apparently recent, and of unknown origin. (Franck thinks the Du. prob. echoic, with influence of various other words.) ON. bralla ‘to trick, job’, does not suit the sense. F. brailler to shout, make a din, bawl, found in 14th c. (which Littré thinks a deriv. of braire to bray) approaches the sense, but could not phonetically be the source of the Eng. word. Mätzner separates brall to make a noise, and brawl to quarrel, but such a division does not appear tenable.]
1. intr. ‘To quarrel noisily and indecently’ (J.); to wrangle; to squabble. (In very early use and in Shakes. 1597 it was perhaps simply ‘to contend, strive, quarrel’.)
| 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 573 That brwyss, that presumyt swa Aganys him to brawle or ryss. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 48/1 Brawlyn or strywen, litigo, jurgo. 1474 Caxton Chesse 125 Gyue thou place to hym that brawleth or chideth. 1530 Elyot Gov. i. xxii, Men do braule, whan betwene them is altercation in wordes. 1548 Coverdale Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. i. 10 To fyght and braule with woordes, is agaynste honestie. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 70 His diuisions (as the Times do braul) Are in three Heads. 1609 Bible (Douay) Gen. xxvi. 21 They brawled likewise, and he called the name of it, Enmitie. 1741–3 Wesley Jrnl. (1749) 92 Expell'd the society..Three, for quarrelling and brawling. 1853 Lynch Self-Improv. iv. 100 A gentleman will not brawl with everybody, nor indeed brawl with anybody. |
† b. trans. To chide, scold, revile. Obs.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse 36 Brawlyng and betyng hym as his seruaunt. 1483 ― G. de la Tour G v b, She that brawled and reproched her of her husbondes. a 1529 Skelton Why nat to Court 593 His servauntes menyal He doth revyle and brall. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Idea Wks. (1711) 220 They will essay to brawl the present form of state and church-government. |
2. intr. To raise a clamour, make a disturbance; in early use sometimes to brag or boast loudly. (to brawl in church technically includes any speaking other than as prescribed in the Prayer Book.)
| 1447–8 J. Shillingford Lett. (1871) 23 He can.. braule, brayge, and brace, lye and swere well to. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 141 Begyn he to bralle, many men cache skorne. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. viii. 84 Now brawland in this place, now voustand thar. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxiv. 203 And belles began to braule, wherby it myght well be knowen that ther was besynesse in hande. 1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, iv. §1 If any Person..by Words only, quarrel, chide or brawl in any Church or Churchyard. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 16/2 They brall as cattes & doggs in an vnknown language. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. iii. 324, I do the wrong, and first begin to brawle. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. ii. v. v. 66 Patriotism..may brawl and babble yet a little while. |
† b. refl. To boast oneself loudly. Obs.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1349 Loo! how he brawles hyme for hys bryghte wedes. |
c. trans. To utter clamorously.
| 1563 Mirr. Mag., Rivers x, No matter what they brall. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 71 What are you brauling here? 1832 Tennyson Pal. Art 210, I care not what the sects may brawl. |
3. intr. Of a stream: To make a noise of conflict in its rapid course over stones, etc.
| 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. i. 32 The brooke that brawles along this wood. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. ii. iv. (1849) 109 The late dimpling current began to brawl around them. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xii, A wild stream..Came brawling down its bed of rock. 1869 Spurgeon J. Ploughm. Talk 43 Shallowest brooks brawl the most. |
4. with compl. (trans.) To drive or force down, out, etc., by brawling.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 383 Till their soule-fearing clamours haue braul'd downe The flintie ribbes of this contemptuous Citie. 1726 De Foe Hist. Devil i. iv. (1840) 57 Juno was within an ace of brawling him out of heaven. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. i. v. vii. 155 So must Paris..brawl itself finally into a kind of sleep. |
▪ VII. † brawl, v.2 Obs.
Also braul.
[Possibly ad. F. branle-r to move from side to side: cf. vamure, vaward for avantmur, van-ward.]
intr. To move to and fro, vibrate, waver, quiver.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xii. 131 Quhen he hys fayis saw braw⁓land sua, In hy upon thaim gan he ga. c 1450 Merlin xiv. 206 The dragon hadde a wide throte that the tounge seemed braulinge euer. |