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The act of strengthening, supporting, or propping, with a brace or braces; the state of being braced.

An architectural member, plain or ornamental, projecting from a wall or pier, to support weight falling outside of the same; also, a decorative feature seeming to discharge such an office.

A bract on the stalk of a single flower, which is itself on a main stalk that support several flowers. Gray.

One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance; as, the branches of an hyperbola.

taining to branchiæ or gills. Branchial arches, the bony or cartilaginous arches which support the gills on each side of the throat of fishes and amphibians. See Illustration in Appendix. -- Branchial clefts, the openings between the branchial arches through which water passes.

An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.

A form of woman's underwaist stiffened with whalebones, or the like, and worn to support the breasts.

Planking to support a roof or wall.

A noisy quarrel; loud, angry contention; a wrangle; a tumult; as, a drunken brawl. His sports were hindered by the brawls. Shak .

A very heavy wood of a reddish color, imported from Brazil and other tropical countries, for cabinet-work, and for dyeing. The best is the heartwood of Cæsalpinia echinata, a leguminous tree; but other trees also yield it. An interior sort comes from Jamaica, the timber of C. Braziliensis and C. crista. This is often d…

Food; sustenance; support of life, in general. Give us this day our daily bread. Matt. vi. 11

An allowance or compensation for things broken accidentally, as in transportation or use.

n the breast. [Obs.] By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. Shak. Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work. -- Breast pang. See Angina pectoris, under Angina. -- To make a clean breast, to disclose the secrets which weigh upon one; to make…

fically: (Naut.) A band of canvas, or a rope, fastened at both ends to the rigging, to support the man who heaves the lead in sounding.

A summer or girder extending across a building flush with, and supporting, the upper part of a front or external wall; a long lintel; a girder; -- used principally above shop windows. [Written also brestsummer and bressummer.]

Deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life; manners; knowledge of, or training in, the ceremonies, or polite observances of society. Delicacy of breeding, or that polite deference and respect which civility obliges us either to express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we conv…

The wooden boarding used in supporting the roofs and walls of coal mines. See Brattice.

breviates of infidelity have . . . been published and dispersed with great activity. Bp. Porteus.

k. This argument is stated by St. John with his usual elegant brevity and simplicity. Bp. Porteus.

Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed.