| 释义 |
brach arch.|brætʃ|
Forms: 4–5 pl. braches, -ez, 5 bracke, brasche, 6 braach, bratche, 7 bratch, 6–7 brache, 6– brach.
[ME. braches pl., prob. a. OF. brachès, brachez, pl. of brachet (med.L. brachētus), dim. of brac (accus. bracon), a common Romanic word (Pr. brac, bracon, It. bracco, Sp. braco, med.L. bracco, -ōnem), a. OHG. bracco (MHG. bracke) a hound hunting by scent. From this pl. braches was app. educed an English sing. brache, brach. (F. braque masc. is a modern form, prob. from It. or MHG.)]
A kind of hound which hunts by scent; in later Eng. use, always feminine, and extended to any kind of hound; a bitch-hound.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1142 Braches bayed þerfore & breme noyse maked. Ibid. 1563 The best of his brachez. 1467Househ. Exp. 558 A ȝonge brasche of halfe ȝere holde. 1490Caxton Eneydos xv. 54 Theyr brackes retches and bloode houndes. 1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits x. (1596) 131 A braach, to hunt and bring the game to his hand. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden T, And so it is with his bratche or bitche-foxe. 1611Markham Countr. Content. (1649) 27 When your Bratch is neere whelping..you shall separate her from other hounds. 1686Gentl. Recreat. ii. 27 in Cath. Angl. 39 A brach is a mannerly name for all hound-bitches. 1811W. Spencer Poems 78 Many a brach, and many a hound Attend Llewellyn's horn. 1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. i. 63 We'll..pamper the brach till we make her a wolf. 1864H. Kingsley Hillyars xxiii, Let them take their braches and lie down.
b. fig. A term of abuse. Cf. bitch.
1610B. Jonson Alch. i. i, Away this brach. a1652Brome Cov. Gard. weeded iv. i, Thou greedy Brach. |