brank
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Compare Gaelic brangus, brangas, a sort of pillory, Irish brancas, halter, or Dutch pranger, fetter.
Noun[edit]
brank (plural branks)
- (usually in the plural) A metal bridle formerly used as a torture device to hold the head of a scold and restrain the tongue.
- (obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, usually in the plural) A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces.
- 1802, Walter Scott (editor), Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Verb[edit]
brank (third-person singular simple present branks, present participle branking, simple past and past participle branked)
- To put someone in the branks.
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) To hold up and toss the head; applied to horses as spurning the bit.
- (Scotland) To prance; to caper.
- 1811, Anne MacVicar Grant, Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland:
- Donald came branking down the brae
Wi' twenty thousand men.
Etymology 2[edit]
Probably of Celtic origin; compare Latin brance, brace, the Gallic name of a particularly white kind of corn.
Noun[edit]
brank (uncountable)
- (UK, dialect) Buckwheat.
- 1842, William Blackwood, The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture:
- One - third of brank-ground , or mixed with any other kind of grain or roots, is as large a proportion as can be given with safety
References[edit]
- “brank” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/æŋk
- Rhymes:English/æŋk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- British English
- Scottish English
- English dialectal terms
- English verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Buckwheat family plants
- en:Torture