| 释义 |
▪ I. brat, n.1 Obs. exc. dial.|bræt|
Also 1 bratt, 6 bratte.
[Of Celtic origin. OE. (Northumbrian) bratt was prob. adopted from OIrish brat(t masc., ‘cloth’, esp. as a covering for the body, ‘plaid, mantle, cloak’ (cf. Gael. brat ‘haircloth for a kiln, apron; covering, mantle, veil’, OWelsh *breth (or *brath), pl. brith, bryth, applied to the swaddling-clothes of an infant: the mod.Welsh brat ‘pinafore, rag’, is merely the Eng. word.]
1. A cloth used as an over-garment, esp. of a coarse or makeshift character.
†a. (in OE.) A cloak.
b. in midl., west., and north. dial., A child's pinafore; a woman's or girl's pinafore or apron. (See also quot. 1962.)
c. contemptuously. A rag, or article which is ‘a mere rag’. Hence ˈbratful, apronful.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. v. 40 Ðæm seðe wil..cyrtel ðin to niomanne forlet eac hrægl vel hæcla vel bratt [L. pallium, Ags. wæfels, Rushw. hryft]. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 329 A brat [v.r. bak] to walken in by day-light. 1529More Supplic. Souls Wks. 337/2 There is none so poore as we, yt haue not a bratte to put on our backes. 1570Levins Manip. 37 A Bratte, panniculus. 1691Ray N.C. Wds. 8 Bratt, a course Apron, a Rag. 1775J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) Tummus & M. 60 Th' treacle butter cake stickt to Seroh's brat. 1786Burns The Author's Earnest Cry xxiv, Sowp's o' kail an' brats o' claise. 1867E. Waugh Owd Blanket i. 19 in Lanc. Gloss., A brat-full o' guinea gowd. 1885Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Chr. Kirkland i. i. 15 The women held their aprons (‘brats’ we called them). 1959Times 15 Oct. 14/6 The picking basket or pail was rejected in favour of the ‘brat’, a long apron made from a meal sack into which the potatoes were first picked. 1962J. B. Priestley Margin Released i. iii. 24, I..had put on the chequered overall known locally as a ‘brat’.
2. A jacket for a sheep's back.
1862J. Wilson Farming 487 This ‘Brat’..prevents the wool from parting over the spine.
†3. Rubbish, beggarly stuff. Cf. beggary 5. Obs.
1656W. Dugard Gate Lat. Unl. §336. 93 The Threshers—with a whisk of feathers purge it from the refuse—& with a siev from the brat or beggery.
4. (Sc.) The tough film or skin which forms on porridge, rice pudding, and the like.
1795Statist. Acc. XV. 8 note (Jam.) Brat, a cover or scurf. 1864J. Brown Jeems 11 Saying his grace over our bickers [of porridge] with their brats on.
▪ II. brat, n.2|bræt|
Also 6–7 bratt(e.
[Of uncertain origin: Wedgwood, E. Müller, and Skeat think it the same word as the prec., but evidence of the transition of sense has not been found.]
‘A child, so called in contempt’ J. In 16th and 17th c. sometimes used without contempt, though nearly always implying insignificance; the phrase beggar's brat has been common from the first.
c1505Dunbar Flyting 49 Irsche brybour baird, wyle beggar with thy brattis. 1557Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 109 Yong brats, a trouble: none at all, a maym it seems to bee. a1577Gascoigne in Farr S.P. (1845) I. 35 O Abrahams brats, O broode of blessed seede. 1583Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 25 What syn hath æneas, my brat, committed agaynst the? a1593H. Smith Wks. (1866–7) I. 197 Where any sectary hath one son, Machiavel hath a score, and those not the brats, but the fatlings of the land. 1650Cromwell in Carlyle Lett. & Sp. (1871) III. 9, I should be glad to hear how the little brat doth. 1712Steele Spect. No. 479 ⁋1 The noise of those damned nurses and squalling brats. 1750Johnson Rambl. No. 15 As cheap as any two little brats can be kept. 1808Scott Mem. in Lockhart i. (1842) 8/1, I felt the change from being a single indulged brat, to becoming a member of a large family, very severely. 1879Dixon Windsor II. vi. 65 Repulsed in her appeal for mercy like a beggar's brat.
b. fig. Offspring, product.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 891 An ignoble and bastardly brat of fear. 1720Ormond in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 9 The South-sea was said to be my lord Oxford's brat. 1790Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. S. Urban Wks. 1812 II. 257 Ambitious that the Brats my Rhymes Should see the Gentlefolks of future times.
Add:c. Special Comb. brat pack slang (orig. U.S.) [punningly after rat pack s.v. rat n.1 7 e], a group of young Hollywood film stars of the mid 1980s popularly regarded as enjoying a rowdy, fun-loving lifestyle; hence, any precocious and aggressive clique; freq. attrib.
1985D. Blum in New York 10 June 42/1 This is the Hollywood ‘*Brat Pack’. It is to the 1980s what the Rat Pack was to the 1960s—a roving band of famous young stars on the prowl for parties, women, and a good time. 1986City Limits 9 Oct. 29 Andie..is torn between desire for rich kid Blane..and contempt for his brat pack lifestyle. 1988Literary Rev. Aug. 26/1 In the hands of a Brett Easton Ellis, McInerney's pace-maker within America's literary brat pack, a description of the situation would have sufficed. 1989Face Jan. 3 Now 20, Molly Ringwald is finally shaking off the Brat Pack tag.
hence brat packer, a member of a brat pack.
1985D. Blum in New York 10 June 42/1 The *Brat Packers act together whenever possible. 1986Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 22 June 22/5 Brat packer Judd Nelson is too big for his boots. He recently refused to be photographed. 1989Q Mar. 119/4 Young guns. A new generation rediscovers an old genre: brat-packers Estevez, Sutherland, Sheen and Lou Diamond ‘La Bamba’ Phillips in a rollicking re-run of the Billy The Kid legend.
▪ III. brat, n.3|bræt|
Also bratt.
[A variant of bret.]
A fish: the turbot, birt, or bret. Also attrib., as in brat-net.
1759Chron. in Ann. Reg. 68/2 It..had a head like a turbot or Bratt. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 12 Brat or Turbot Net complete.
▪ IV. brat, n.4 Mining.|bræt|
[perhaps akin to brat1, 2.]
‘A thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.’ Bainbridge Law of Mines 1856.
▪ V. brat, v. rare.|bræt|
[f. brat n.1]
trans. To wrap up in a brat or clout.
1570Levins Manip. 37 To Bratte, panniculis circumdare. 1862[see bratting vbl. n.]. |