brewis
(ˈbruːɪs, bruːz)
Forms: 3–4 broys, brouwys: see browis; 5 brewes, brus, 6 brewish, -ys, brues, -isse, -yse, 6–7 brewes, -ess, -esse, brewz, 7 brewice, -isse, bruesse, 8 brews, 9 dial. breawis, 6– brewis.
[ME. browes, brouwys, brewes, etc., a. OF. brouetz, in 13th c. broez, nominative of brouet, broet ‘soup made with broth of meat’, dim. of OF. bro, breu: see browet, of which this word is thus a doublet. It is possible that the change of browes to brewes, brewis was influenced by some popular association with OE. briw, pl. briwas soup, pottage (see bree), or even with the vb. brew. Cf. browis, brose.]
1. Broth, liquor in which beef and vegetables have been boiled; sometimes also thickened with bread or meal. Now chiefly dial., and applied very variously in different localities.
| [1300–1525 see browis.] 1526 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 174 Venison in brewz or mult, 1 mess, 4d. 1530 Palsgr. 201/2 Brewes, brovet. 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic 250/2 Cut a chese to shivers, and make therof cheese brues. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 126 Fatned with Scotish pottage and brewesse. c 1622 Fletcher Prophetess i. iii. 27 What an inundation of brewisse shall I swim in? a 1650 MS. Bodl. 30. 13 b, The verie bruise of divinitie, fatt and glorious. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (Hotten) 297 The Liquor of the Meat, which they call Brews. 1822 Scott Nigel x, Mountains of beef, and oceans of brewis, as large as Highland hills and lochs. c 1850 in E. Fowke et al. Canada's Story in Song (1960) 164 Tho' Newfoundland is changing fast, some things we must not lose: May we always have our flipper pie, and codfish for our brewis. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. vi. (ed. 12) 35 She can't stir a pot of brewis. 1874 Mrs. Whitney We Girls vi. 130 One [fryingpan] was set on with the milk for the brewis. 1906 J. Lumsden Skipper Parson vi. 87 A popular dish in Newfoundland is ‘brewis’, pronounced broose. 1964 Canad. Geogr. Jrnl. Apr. 135 Only in Newfoundland were we served..fish-and-brewis. |
2. ‘Bread soaked in boiling fat pottage, made of salted meat’ (J.).
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 53 Browesse [1499 browes], adipatum. 1554 Becon Comfort. Epist. (1844) 208 Eating beef and brewis knuckle-deep. 1580 Baret Alv. B 1225 Brewis, offulæ adipatæ. 1588 Marprel. Epist. 41 The B. of Glocester..affirmed that beefe and brewesse had made him a papist. 1594 Lyly M. Bombie iii. iv. 113 A stately peece of beefe..in great pompe sitting upon a cushion of white brewish. a 1625 Fletcher Mad Lover ii. i. 8 Beefe we can beare before us linde with Brewes. 1680 Shadwell Woman-Capt. i. Wks. 1720 III. 347 A greasy serving-man..whose beard stunk of beef and brewis. 1854 W. Gaskell Lect. Lanc. Dial. 13 in Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Bread soaked in broth, or in the fat that drips from meat..is known as brewis. 1857 J. Scholes Jaunt 13 (ibid.) Drops o fat on Owdham breawis. |