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A scolding bridle, an instrument formerly used for correcting scolding women. It was an iron frame surrounding the head and having a triangular piece entering the mouth of the scold.

A sum formerly levied to pay the expense of coinage; -- now called seigniorage.

A child; an offspring; -- formerly used in a good sense, but now usually in a contemptuous sense. "This brat is none of mine." Shak. "A beggar's brat." Swift. O Israel! O household of the Lord! O Abraham's brats! O brood of blessed seed! Gascoigne.

The act of braving; defiance; bravado. [Obs.] Reform, then, without bravery or scandal of former times and persons.

w the range and flexibility of a singer's voice, or the technical force and skill of a performer; virtuoso music. Aria di bravura ( Etym: [It.], a florid air demanding brilliant execution.

A muscle; flesh. [Obs.] Formed well of brawns and of bones. Chaucer.

Any rude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time. [U.S.] Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with. New Eng. Tales.

thing; to infuse; -- with into. Able to breathe life into a stone. Shak. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Gen. ii. 7.

To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth.

nt to two semibreves or four minims. When dotted, it is equal to three semibreves. It was formerly of a square figure (as thus: Moore.

The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed. Bacon.

d from the north; -- now usually called southerly buster. It blew across the Brickfields, formerly so called, a district of Sydney, and carried clouds of dust into the city.

Full of bricks; formed of bricks; resembling bricks or brick dust. [R.] Spenser.

by the action of the current or other means. -- Girder bridge or Truss bridge, a bridge formed by girders, or by trusses resting upon abutments or piers. -- Lattice bridge, a bridge formed by lattice girders. -- Pontoon bridge, Ponton bridge. See under Pontoon. -- Skew bridge, a bridge built obliquely from bank to…

A diamond or other gem of the finest cut, formed into faces and facets, so as to reflect and refract the light, by which it is rendered nore brilliant. It has at the middle, or top, a principal face, called the table, which is surrounded by a number of sloping facets forming a bizet; below, it has a small face or colle…

suring the saltness of a liquid. -- Brine pan, a pit or pan of salt water, where salt is formed by cristallization. -- Brine pit, a salt spring or well, from which water is taken to be boiled or evaporated for making salt. -- Brine pump (Marine Engin.), a pump for changing the water in the boilers, so as to clear th…

the original inhabitants. British gum, a brownish substance, very soluble in cold water, formed by heating dry starch at a temperature of about 600° Fahr. It corresponds, in its properties, to dextrin, and is used, in solution, as a substitute for gum in stiffering goods. -- British lion, the national emblem of Great…

pin, or loop for attaching it to a garment; now worn at the breast by women; a breastpin. Formerly worn by men on the hat. Honor 's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat. B. Jonson.

, with flowers, usually blue, in axillary racemes. The American species is V. Americana. [Formerly written broklempe or broklympe.]

gfellow. Brown Bess, the old regulation flintlock smoothbore musket, with bronzed barrel, formerly used in the British army. -- Brown bread (a) Dark colored bread; esp. a kind made of unbolted wheat flour, sometimes called in the United States Graham bread. "He would mouth with a beggar though she smelt brown bread an…