Brevetcy (bre*vĕt"sȳ) noun ; plural Brevetcies (- sĭz). (Mil.) The rank or condition of a brevet officer.

Breviary noun ; plural Breviaries [ French bréviarie , Latin breviarium summary, abridgment, neut. noun from breviarius abridged, from brevis short. See Brief , and confer Brevier .]
1. An abridgment; a compend; an epitome; a brief account or summary.

A book entitled the abridgment or breviary of those roots that are to be cut up or gathered.
Holland.

2. A book containing the daily public or canonical prayers of the Roman Catholic or of the Greek Church for the seven canonical hours, namely, matins and lauds, the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, vespers, and compline; -- distinguished from the missal .

Breviate noun [ Latin breviatus , past participle of breviare to shorten, brevis short.]
1. A short compend; a summary; a brief statement.

I omit in this breviate to rehearse.
Hakluyt.

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

2. A lawyer's brief. [ R.] Hudibras.

Breviate transitive verb To abbreviate. [ Obsolete]

Breviature noun An abbreviature; an abbreviation. [ Obsolete] Johnson.

Brevier (bre*vēr") noun [ Prob. from being originally used in printing a breviary . See Breviary .] (Print.) A size of type between bourgeois and minion.

» This line is printed in brevier type.

Breviloquence noun [ Latin breviloquentia .] A brief and pertinent mode of speaking. [ R.]

Breviped adjective [ Latin brevis short + pes , pedis , foot: confer French brévipède .] (Zoology) Having short legs. -- noun A breviped bird.

Brevipen noun [ Latin brevis short + penna wing: confer French brévipenne .] (Zoology) A brevipennate bird.

Brevipennate adjective [ Latin brevis short + English pennate .] (Zoology) Short-winged; -- applied to birds which can not fly, owing to their short wings, as the ostrich, cassowary, and emu.

Brevirostral, Brevirostrate adjective [ Latin brevis short + English rostral , rostrate .] (Zoology) Short-billed; having a short beak.

Brevity noun ; plural Brevities [ Latin brevitas , from brevis short: confer French brièvité . See Brief .]
1. Shortness of duration; briefness of time; as, the brevity of human life.

2. Contraction into few words; conciseness.

Brevity is the soul of wit.
Shak.

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

Syn. -- Shortness; conciseness; succinctness; terseness.

Brew transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Brewed ; present participle & verbal noun Brewing .] [ Middle English brewen , Anglo-Saxon breówan ; akin to Dutch brouwen , Old High German priuwan , Middle High German briuwen , br...wen , German brauen , Icelandic brugga , Swedish brygga , Danish brygge , and perhaps to Latin defrutum must boiled down, Greek ... (for ...?) a kind of beer. The original meaning seems to have been to prepare by heat . √93. Confer Broth , Bread .]
1. To boil or seethe; to cook. [ Obsolete]

2. To prepare, as beer or other liquor, from malt and hops, or from other materials, by steeping, boiling, and fermentation. "She brews good ale." Shak.

3. To prepare by steeping and mingling; to concoct.

Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.
Shak.

4. To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot; to concoct; to hatch; as, to brew mischief.

Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!
Milton.

Brew intransitive verb
1. To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.

I wash, wring, brew , bake, scour.
Shak.

2. To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering; as, a storm brews in the west.

There is some ill a- brewing towards my rest.
Shak.

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

Brewage noun Malt liquor; drink brewed. "Some well-spiced brewage ." Milton.

A rich brewage , made of the best Spanish wine.
Macaulay.

Brewer noun One who brews; one whose occupation is to prepare malt liquors.

Brewery noun A brewhouse; the building and apparatus where brewing is carried on.

Brewhouse noun A house or building appropriated to brewing; a brewery.

Brewing noun
1. The act or process of preparing liquors which are brewed, as beer and ale.

2. The quantity brewed at once.

A brewing of new beer, set by old beer.
Bacon.

3. A mixing together.

I am not able to avouch anything for certainty, such a brewing and sophistication of them they make.
Holland.

4. (Nautical) A gathering or forming of a storm or squall, indicated by thick, dark clouds.

Brewis noun [ Middle English brewis , brouwys , browesse , brewet , Old French brouet , - s being the Old French ending of the nom. sing. and acc. plural; dim. of Old High German brod . √93. See Broth , and confer Brose .]
1. Broth or pottage. [ Obsolete]

Let them of their Bonner's "beef" and "broth" make what brewis they please for their credulous guests.
Bp. Hall.

2. Bread soaked in broth, drippings of roast meat, milk, or water and butter.

Brewsterite noun [ Named after Sir David Brewster .] A rare zeolitic mineral occurring in white monoclinic crystals with pearly luster. It is a hydrous silicate of aluminia, baryta, and strontia.

Brezilin noun See Brazilin .

Briar noun Same as Brier .

Briarean adjective [ Latin Briareius , from Briareus a mythological hundred-handed giant, Greek ..., from ... strong.] Pertaining to, or resembling, Briareus, a giant fabled to have a hundred hands; hence, hundred-handed or many-handed.

Bribable adjective Capable of being bribed.

A more bribable class of electors.
S. Edwards.

Bribe noun [ French bribe a lump of bread, scraps, leavings of meals (that are generally given to a beggar), Late Latin briba scrap of bread; confer Old French briber , brifer , to eat gluttonously, to beg, and Old High German bilibi food.]
1. A gift begged; a present. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

2. A price, reward, gift, or favor bestowed or promised with a view to prevent the judgment or corrupt the conduct of a judge, witness, voter, or other person in a position of trust.

Undue reward for anything against justice is a bribe .
Hobart.

3. That which seduces; seduction; allurement.

Not the bribes of sordid wealth can seduce to leave these ever...blooming sweets.
Akenside.

Bribe transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bribed ; present participle & verbal noun Bribing .]
1. To rob or steal. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

2. To give or promise a reward or consideration to (a judge, juror, legislator, voter, or other person in a position of trust) with a view to prevent the judgment or corrupt the conduct; to induce or influence by a bribe; to give a bribe to.

Neither is he worthy who bribes a man to vote against his conscience.
F. W. Robertson.

3. To gain by a bribe; of induce as by a bribe.

Bribe intransitive verb
1. To commit robbery or theft. [ Obsolete]

2. To give a bribe to a person; to pervert the judgment or corrupt the action of a person in a position of trust, by some gift or promise.

An attempt to bribe , though unsuccessful, has been holden to be criminal, and the offender may be indicted.
Bouvier.

The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe .
Goldsmith.

Bribeless adjective Incapable of being bribed; free from bribes.

From thence to heaven's bribeless hall.
Sir W. Raleigh.

Briber noun
1. A thief. [ Obsolete] Lydgate.

2. One who bribes, or pays for corrupt practices.

3. That which bribes; a bribe.

His service . . . were a sufficient briber for his life.
Shak.

Bribery noun ; plural Briberies [ Middle English brybery rascality, Old French briberie . See Bribe , noun ]
1. Robbery; extortion. [ Obsolete]

2. The act or practice of giving or taking bribes; the act of influencing the official or political action of another by corrupt inducements.

Bribery oath , an oath taken by a person that he has not been bribed as to voting. [ Eng.]

Bric-a brac noun [ French] Miscellaneous curiosities and works of decorative art, considered collectively.

A piece of bric-a-brac , any curious or antique article of virtu, as a piece of antiquated furniture or metal work, or an odd knickknack.

Brick noun [ Middle English brik , French brique ; of German origin; confer Anglo-Saxon brice a breaking, fragment, Prov. English brique piece, brique de pain , equiv. to Anglo-Saxon hlāfes brice , from the root of English break . See Break .]
1. A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp.

The Assyrians appear to have made much less use of bricks baked in the furnace than the Babylonians.
Layard.

2. Bricks, collectively, as designating that kind of material; as, a load of brick ; a thousand of brick .

Some of Palladio's finest examples are of brick .
Weale.

3. Any oblong rectangular mass; as, a brick of maple sugar; a penny brick (of bread).

4. A good fellow; a merry person; as, you 're a brick . [ Slang] "He 's a dear little brick ." Thackeray.

To have a brick in one's hat , to be drunk. [ Slang]

» Brick is used adjectively or in combination; as, brick wall; brick clay; brick color; brick red.

Brick clay , clay suitable for, or used in making, bricks. -- Brick dust , dust of pounded or broken bricks. -- Brick earth , clay or earth suitable for, or used in making, bricks. -- Brick loaf , a loaf of bread somewhat resembling a brick in shape. -- Brick nogging (Architecture) , rough brickwork used to fill in the spaces between the uprights of a wooden partition; brick filling. -- Brick tea , tea leaves and young shoots, or refuse tea, steamed or mixed with fat, etc., and pressed into the form of bricks. It is used in Northern and Central Asia. S. W. Williams. -- Brick trimmer (Architecture) , a brick arch under a hearth, usually within the thickness of a wooden floor, to guard against accidents by fire. -- Brick trowel . See Trowel . -- Brick works , a place where bricks are made. -- Bath brick . See under Bath , a city. -- Pressed brick , bricks which, before burning, have been subjected to pressure, to free them from the imperfections of shape and texture which are common in molded bricks.

Brick transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bricked ; present participle & verbal noun Bricking .]
1. To lay or pave with bricks; to surround, line, or construct with bricks.

2. To imitate or counterfeit a brick wall on, as by smearing plaster with red ocher, making the joints with an edge tool, and pointing them.

To brick up , to fill up, inclose, or line, with brick.

Brickbat noun A piece or fragment of a brick. See Bat , 4. Bacon.

Brickfielder noun [ Australia ]
1. Orig., at Sydney, a cold and violent south or southwest wind, rising suddenly, and regularly preceded by a hot wind 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.

2. By confusion, a midsummer hot wind from the north.

Brickkiln noun A kiln, or furnace, in which bricks are baked or burnt; or a pile of green bricks, laid loose, with arches underneath to receive the wood or fuel for burning them.

Bricklayer noun [ Brick + lay .] One whose occupation is to build with bricks.

Bricklayer's itch . See under Itch .

Bricklaying noun The art of building with bricks, or of uniting them by cement or mortar into various forms; the act or occupation of laying bricks.

Brickle adjective [ Middle English brekil , brokel , bruchel , from Anglo-Saxon brecan , English break . Confer Brittle .] Brittle; easily broken. [ Obsolete or Prov.] Spenser.

As stubborn steel excels the brickle glass.
Turbervile.

Brickleness noun Brittleness. [ Obsolete]

Brickmaker noun One whose occupation is to make bricks. -- Brick"mak*ing , noun

Brickwork noun
1. Anything made of bricks.

Niches in brickwork form the most difficult part of the bricklayer's art.
Tomlinson.

2. The act of building with or laying bricks.

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

Brickyard noun A place where bricks are made, especially an inclosed place.

Bricole noun [ French] (Mil.) A kind of traces with hooks and rings, with which men drag and maneuver guns where horses can not be used.

Bricole noun
1. An ancient kind of military catapult.

2. In court tennis, the rebound of a ball from a wall of the court; also, the side stroke or play by which the ball is driven against the wall; hence, fig., indirect action or stroke.

3. (Billiards) A shot in which the cue ball is driven first against the cushion.

Brid noun A bird. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.